boasts of Athiests II

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No, that's not sentimentality.

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Why isn't it?And what of the fact that my life experience exceeded my expectations in that case? I imagined a lot about what a great workplace and a great job would mean, yet the reality far outstripped my imagination.Has life only ever disappointed you and Robin?Has life never exceeded your expectations, even when they were grand?

Speaking hypothetically, if some man said to me that he was "constantly in awe" of something, I would find it hard to believe him.If I live on the plains and take a vacation to the mountains, I will be in awe of the mountains. But the people who live in the mountains are not in awe of the mountains. They hardly notice them. And if I stay there for a few weeks, my awe will decrease greatly. At the end of my trip, I might even be rather tired of the mountains. I might hanker for the plains.Of course habituation works both ways. If a man loses his beloved spouse, he will feel deep sorrow. But in time that sorrow will fade away. It will be much less intense. He will have become habituated to the loss.Perhaps this man who told me he was in constant awe did not mean it literally. He was just expressing his appreciation. But if he kept making comments like that about different objects--that he's constantly in awe of this, that, and the other-- and he did so effusively, I would conclude that his attitude is sentimental.Edited by robinrohan, : No reason given.Edited by robinrohan, : No reason given.

A very real possibility but another common possibility is simply a style of speech that uses hyperbole.The cognitive psychology therapists like Albert Ellis point out that this can lead to some emotional problems but it is quite common for people to say about some minor little bump or cut or inconvienence, "That's terrible" when it's no such thing of course.Everyday speech has many functions and accuracy is often low on the list.lfenABE: Some of this may stem from the media's attempt at getting attention, such as The Mega Sale of the Century, Don't Miss the Huge 1 Day Event! Lowest Prices ever... etc. etc. but it's only some one trying to sell used cars, or paint, or toilet paper or something.Edited by lfen, : after thought

I see your point. The business world is full of such exaggeration.

Not when they were grand, no. But life often exceeds our expectations in minor matters. Maybe a friend wants me to watch a movie in which I am uninterested. I just watch it to please him, and it turns out to be much more interesting than expected. That would be a case of life exceeding expectations.On the whole, however, maturity--as you suggested earlier--consists of lowering our expectations.

I did a brief contemplation of the contemporary influences on English in the US.Shakespeare and the King James translation of the Bible have left a lot of phrases to the everyday use. I think some of the paucity of contemporary speech may well be the influence of the mass media and advertising. I've no expertise in this field and don't want to make an in depth study but it seems possible doesn't it?lfenEdited by lfen, : No reason given.

By "paucity" do you mean exaggeration?Certainly the madia/advertising is in the business of stirring up interest. Everything has be presented as exciting or important.You might have something there.

I mean that an average human life consists of both positive and negative elements. There will be some joy, some sorrow, and a great deal of modest satisfaction and modest dissatisfaction.I don't know if a "worldview" adds anything to one's life or not.But if we try to figure things out, and come to some conclusions, however tentative, then we have a worldview.

Did you ever see Ken Burn's documentary on the Civil War? One thing they did was read family letters, many between husband and wife. I would expect that many of these people had a few years of school and yet their eloquence of expression were beyond most of what I read today.I've meant to but have never pursued these letters. I would like to find a source of them to read. I think this is one aspect of Faith's complaint about contemporary society. I lament it also though I don't know if I condemn it. There was much about those times in the US that was ugly. The treatment of slaves, the hideous carnage of the battlefield and later the prisoner of war camps. Eloquence isn't the most important thing.And though I believe reality is prior to and lies beyond language I still love language and the arts.lfen

Yes. I see the Christian concept is that had there not been a fall there would be no negative, and in heaven there will be no negative. This makes no sense to me because as soon as you have positive you have postitive/negative. There can be no positive without a negative. These are states of comparison.An Eastern answer to this is to look at what is prior to the comparitive or the falling away of the comparative mode. This is sometimes referred to as transcendence. If you see the inevitability of comparisons can you begin to suspect that there is a state, I'll call it "simple existence" that is neither good nor bad, pain nor pleasure, satisfaction nor dissatisfaction but simply IS?lfen

Perhaps this is why there is a Hell and perhaps we will retain a perfect memory of our earthly lives so that we are constantly reminded of where we ended up and why, and appreciate our state of perfection by the contrast. Or maybe we will simply be constituted differently enough that we aren't prone to habituation and loss of appreciation.

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Not when they were grand, no. But life often exceeds our expectations in minor matters. Maybe a friend wants me to watch a movie in which I am uninterested. I just watch it to please him, and it turns out to be much more interesting than expected. That would be a case of life exceeding expectations.

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On the whole, however, maturity--as you suggested earlier--consists of lowering our expectations.

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But what of my example? My occupation would hardly be considered minor.My marriage has also exceeded my expectations in many respects.Perhaps these major factors of my life have exceeded my expectations in direct proportion to the amount of effort I put into them.

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Shakespeare and the King James translation of the Bible have left a lot of phrases to the everyday use. I think some of the paucity of contemporary speech may well be the influence of the mass media and advertising. I've no expertise in this field and don't want to make an in depth study but it seems possible doesn't it?

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Mass media +
commercials/advertizing +
television -
reading =
people who cannot write or speak eloquently.

I still don't quite understand, nor do i much understand the bit about dissatisfaction.What i find extrememly interesting is that for every single thing that i can be dissatisfied about, I can find at least one person who has a demonstrable satisfaction in the way something goes. Why should I bother to be limited to what i can think when i can live vicariously through another as well? What limits me from attempinting to experience their own joy in a particlar action or process?Probably why I tutor (I will eventaully teach). Its wonderful hearing the variety of ways people attempt to explain something and or talk about how they enjoy a particular situation. (since alot of my work there is a great deal of informal talk). The biggest thing I've learned through all of my tutoring is that, why should I at all ne limited to enjoyment of my life through my own eyes, what is so hard from enjoying my own life from the eyes of another? (admittedly it does take quite a bit of energy to percieve it). Of course it admittedly does open a can of worms, but so long as the action has only direct influence on myself i see no problem with.Edited by Discreet Label, : Grammar errors.

Because sentimentality is the exaggeration of something or a falsification of some sort. Actually it's hard to pin down when you come at it from another direction like this, unrelated to it. But what you are talking about is simply good fortune, or what the Puritans called "God's smiling providences."