On 08/12/2012 12:26 PM, turquoiseb wrote: > Tonight I'm taking a rare Night Off, because I finished 10 articles on > health and wellness issues (my Night Job) in the last two days, and > figured I deserved one. > > So I walked over to Bad Habits to see what it was up to on a Sunday > Night During The Olympics and, sadly, so far, that is Not Very Much. :-) > Yes, the Olympics are up on their big-screen TV, but the place is fairly > empty. A good excuse to just sit here and write for a while, about > whatever I wind up writing about. > > At a large table near me are 9 young (early to late 20s) Dutch folks, > pretty much equally divided among the genders, including the one person > who I can't figure out if it's a woman or a man. They seem fairly happy > and cheerful, and they're only on their first round of drinks, so > alcohol is not the mitigating factor. > > Sussing them out, I figure that most of them are students at the > university here, but either stuck here for the summer because of SPS > (Student Poverty Syndrome), or because they've got TA or research gigs > at the U during the summer. I'm not close enough to their table to > overhear what they're talking about, and even if I were, it's in Dutch, > and I'm still a major retard when it comes to Dutch. > > But I get the feeling -- although many of the women are Dressed To Fuck, > and this is clearly merely their first stop on an Evening Out -- that > they're not talking about Reality TV. :-) That just isn't who the > university students around here *are*. My waitress is originally from > Boston, and is here studying international business, and having talked > with her a few times I'm not even sure she knows what Reality TV *is*. > :-) > > As to what many people on this forum may be wondering about -- do any of > these people have Spiritual Aspirations? -- my honest answer would have > to be "I doubt it." The Dutch are a pragmatic nationality historically, > and their youth is no exception. A couple of decades ago they might have > gravitated to the hippie ethic, but now they're setting their sites on a > well-paying job. > > Still, they enjoy life, and obviously enjoy laughter. In my book that > places them at a higher level on the spiritual hierarchy than those who > espouse spiritual pursuits, but -- both when you encounter them > individually or get them together in groups -- don't really laugh all > that much. > > But then I'm biased. To me, laughter is the sound that the Tao makes > when you're in tune with it.
"Spiritual Aspirations" were very much in vogue in the 1960s and early 70s but had waned by the 1980s. A friend who is a psychology prof thinks it is not in vogue at all anymore and even suggested renaming my guru's tantra teaching and meditation something else. And certainly the "yoga" rage has very little to do with spirituality and more to do with a form of exercise. Today's young folks are more interested in having the latest gadget and apparently casual sex as well as living cheaply because they would rather have more free time than a lot of money.
