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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)MO
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2 yr. ago

  • No life is without pain. We may have fundamental differences in how we view inhumanity, and while I'm sure neither of us want anything to suffer, it's the end of life that we may disagree. Death doesn't have to be inhumane or painful though.

  • "It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all,"

    I mean, relative to coming from space I guess it almost hit his son. How does he feel about every car he drives past on a two lane road? "Oh shoot! Almost collided with that one too!"

  • Some places are. I looked around until I found a community care clinic for people who don't have insurance. It's free. The university near me also offers free/low cost therapy. Years ago before we were married, my wife and I found couples counseling from an intern who was gaining experience at no cost to us.

    I know everyone doesn't have the same resources, but just wanted to point out that if someone gives up because they assume it's expensive, they may not find the affordable options available to them.

  • I haven't read through comments yet so I may be redundant.

    Hey... So sorry. Pets are a personal relationship. That loss is a grief just like any other. It's hard because others don't have the relationship to that individual that you have.

    Grief is something you carry through life. It isn't linear, but it does get easier. Grief will come in waves. You'll be fine and then it hits you out of the blue.

    Do we just live and suffer and die? Well, yeah. But we also love, and get excited, and feel, learn new things, explore. We fall in love; we experienced heartbreak. We have moments when we notice the light coming through the leaves in the forest, or the sound of water on rocks in a creek, an interaction between a grandparent and young child, the smell of a newborn's head, that first time a cat settles in your lap, coffee when no one else is awake, the first sign of success in a new hobby, I could go on and on. So many things. Observations that have a visceral yet intangible emotional reaction. So so many things.

    Let grief make you tender. Let grief remind you that everyone will deal with it in different ways. You can connect to others through vulnerability. Don't let it make you hard or resentful; there's so much beauty and love in the world. There's so much love in the personal relationship with a pet. There is love you can't describe.

    Engage with the grief. Don't bottle or avoid it. Feel it. You're grieving because of the depth and complexity of the relationship. That's totally okay. That's healthy. It's gonna hurt. It hurts.

    I'm so sorry you're feeling this right now. Take your time and feel it. Don't feel like you ever have to let that go. That's life.

    Live, suffer, and die? Yeah, you could say that, but it's in the most beautiful way, and there's so much in between.

  • There are things in those books that are demonstrably true, but that doesn't necessarily prove everything in them just as those things that are demonstrably false don't necessarily disprove everything in them.

    It's just a matter of not being able to observe, measure, or physically test a god's existence. From an objective standpoint, believing whether a god exists or not is still just a belief.

    I'm only trying to show how a scientific person could compartmentalize their beliefs from their studies and to that end, I think we agree that they aren't incompatible. What someone chooses to believe after that is up to them, because as you point out, there's no peer reviewed published evidence one way or another.

  • The big difference is that many religious beliefs can't be tested. They are just believed in faith. In science, nothing is believed. It's all evidence based and tested. A scientist doesn't have to reconcile their religious beliefs with their scientific ways because their beliefs are outside the realm of the scientific method. They accept that they don't have a way to measure or test those things.

  • They have for a long time. I seem to remember the DEA commissioning studies that they would later have to get approval to officially ignore because they didn't like the outcome, multiple times. They would use highly reputable research centers and then drag their names through the mud. War on drugs is a profit and power generator.

  • I asked my parents for wool socks for Christmas twenty years ago and they gave me a few pairs each of three or four different brands. The ones that have lasted the longest and include a lifetime warranty is Redhead from Bass Pro. I've only exchanged them once or twice. They're tall and thick with high pile wool. I've worn a pair almost every day for probably nine months out of the year, sometimes year-round, ever since I got them.

  • To remember that we've spent almost 18 years together and that we're best friends. That we've carried each other and comforted each other through so much.

    There was that time I had to climb fifty feet up a tree with hardly any limbs with ropes and a harness to get him when the crows goaded him into climbing higher. The rusty antique farm equipment below would have mangled him had he fallen. I had to lift him with one hand, balanced, hoping he would roll out of my grip, and put him in a cinch top bag with a rope attached to lower him to my wife on the ground. Once he reached her hands, I broke down and sobbed while I made my way to them. I was so scared. I woke up the next day and he was curled up around my hand, holding tightly. He didn't want to go outside for months.

    He pees on me regularly now. Sometimes when I come home with my hands full and can't give him attention immediately. Sometimes when I've been home all day and he didn't get a snack fast enough. Maybe his kitten baby sister is trying to play with him or he's stuck on the other side of the door while I'm brushing my teeth. He has hyperthyroidism and kidney disease. We give him everything, do the best we can for his health care, but it's getting close to the time we say goodbye and it's breaking my heart.

    I just wish he'd remember me the way I remember him.

    I lifted him onto my lap yesterday morning, out of the reach of his gentle but playful six month old kitten sister. He peed all down the front of me. I didn't scold; I just held him until he was done, knowing the last time I hold him isn't far away.