It sure is a small world

Widow of Vietnam Vet

Widow of Vietnam Vet

Member
Location
Cohocton NY
This is only my second thread I started here because I could not remember how to post a new thread and now I know how.

Yesterday I missed part of a fire call on my scanner and it sounded like they had a fire on my road here in NY ,So I called a very good friend of mine who lives up the road and asked him if he heard anything on his scanner about a possible fire up here. We were both in the local volunteer Fire Department.

He answered his cell and said 'No I am not near my scanner,I am in Vermont'! He is a disabled vet but managed to drive alone to Vermont because his last flight ordeal in November was awful. I mentioned to him this forum ( he does not use a PC) and how Holly Dolly helped me discover so much about my father's roots....

And he said "dont forget I was stationed in England (USAF Ret.) before I went to Alaska and he had been in London, Cheshire ,and also went into Wales and said it was Beautiful. I have known him for over 25 year and had completely forgotten about that and he also had been to Scotland and remembered long ago that I knew he loved Scottish scones and somewhere on the net I bought a scone mix and made them for him.

Oddly enough I called him years ago to come down the hill for lunch here, but he couldn't make it-he answered his cell phone on a fishing pier in Vermont! He tries to see his sisters every year and I have met them too when they were able to make the trip to NY.

Then yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine in Pennsylvania- I mentioned him here in a different thread. He is a retired psychologist from India and gave me a good description of what Happiness is, that I posted here somewhere and he was glad to hear that.

He said that everyone must try to find something to look forward to every day and I always try to follow that advice. He saw so much poverty in India, that it shocked him to learn so many Americans are depressed and yet they have so much, and asked me why and I said
maybe some are depressed because they have so much- everything we work so hard for ,brings it's own additional challenges and responsibilities....and that can become overwhelming.

This is a lovely Hindu family , I have known for 53 years and their Christmas Tree is still up. They look forward to every American Holiday.

My oldest friendship is 79 years old, a woman I met before we started Kindergarten. I try to hold on to friendships as long as I can.
 

Great-thank you !
Holly Dolly, when I was little we would eat something called fin and hattie- it seemed to be a smoked fish that my mother would fry and serve with boiled potatoes and sometimes a light cream sauce.
Is that a type of fish you are familiar with?
 

Yes, it was, but I only see unsmoked haddock at my food market. They do sell smoked whitefish and that is delicious.
My grandmother was from Scotland and I think her maiden name was Anne Andrews.
I know she would make a delicious pork pie for her family on special occasions.
 
Somehow I wandered onto this post this morning. First I'll say there was a McAllister back in my family tree on my mother's side. Though I'm not predominantly Scottish, I've had a lot of Scottish friends.☺️

But something else engaged my attention in the opening post, Widow-of-Vietnam-Vet. That was what you described in the attitude of your Hindu psychologist friend. Having something to look forward to each day is a key thing about not being depressed. Still, I believe it's a byproduct or result of something else. Traditional Indian & much Asian 'psychology' has its essence in a deep centeredness. Developing a connection with your deepest center... what we might call the soul. Not something that only Asians experience.

When you've accomplished that, to whatever degree, you are more capable of enjoying the moment & looking forward to something each day. It usually takes time to gain this connection, as most of us have been "banged up" in some way in life. Having more & more is how most modern-Westerners seem to attempt to escape depression, but centeredness provides more than commercialism can offer.

I'm sure the happy ones among the Scots of the old days arrived at this, as much as the East-Indian man you know.
 
The thing I look forward to on most days is getting in my walk in my woods, finishing all my chores and then listening to good music in my high end stereo. I have designed and built all my stereo speakers for over forty years, and I finally got good enough at it that my present speakers and associated components sound very good to me.
 
Widow of Vietnam Vet said:
Yes, it was, but I only see unsmoked haddock at my food market. They do sell smoked whitefish and that is delicious.
My grandmother was from Scotland and I think her maiden name was Anne Andrews.
I know she would make a delicious pork pie for her family on special occasions.
Click to expand...
Pork pies are a traditionally middle English delicacy....
 
JBR said:
Somehow I wandered onto this post this morning. First I'll say there was a McAllister back in my family tree on my mother's side. Though I'm not predominantly Scottish, I've had a lot of Scottish friends.☺️

But something else engaged my attention in the opening post, Widow-of-Vietnam-Vet. That was what you described in the attitude of your Hindu psychologist friend. Having something to look forward to each day is a key thing about not being depressed. Still, I believe it's a byproduct or result of something else. Traditional Indian & much Asian 'psychology' has its essence in a deep centeredness. Developing a connection with your deepest center... what we might call the soul. Not something that only Asians experience.

When you've accomplished that, to whatever degree, you are more capable of enjoying the moment & looking forward to something each day. It usually takes time to gain this connection, as most of us have been "banged up" in some way in life. Having more & more is how most modern-Westerners seem to attempt to escape depression, but centeredness provides more than commercialism can offer.

I'm sure the happy ones among the Scots of the old days arrived at this, as much as the East-Indian man you know.
Click to expand...
Nice explanation.
That was really nicely stated.
 

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