My first total solar eclipse. It was truly breath taking. I’ve seen another one since then but the first one was truly special.
It’s wild.
Air changing, animals responding. Shit must have been transcendental in the past.
I caught the 2009 total eclipse here and it was awe-inspiring. It was also the longest solar eclipse expected for the 21st century at 6 minutes, 39 seconds, so it made a deep impression on everybody standing on the roof of the apartment block to watch it.
I don’t wish to see a second, though, because the next one will be in the year 2200 and that would mean I’d still be alive in 200 years. Not something I want.
Seeing aurora borealis on new years eve.A first kiss with a new crush.
I’ve seen the Aurora Borealis hundreds of times. (Living in the high arctic does that to you.) But I have heard them only once.
I’d like to hear them again.
Being at the controls of an airplane.
I want to see Cats, on stage, live, again.
Re-visit some places. Prague, Tartu, Kyoto come to mind.
And I would kind of like that “new love” feeling again, except it would either get messy or be preceded by unpleasantness or tragedy.
Well, I gotta say that seeing a Monet in person wrecked my brain.
But my favorite painter is van Gogh, which I guess is pretty fucking common; and my favorite sculptor is Rodin. I’ve never seen anything of theirs in person.
I don’t know if it would have that same consciousness altering effect because I’ve not only already been exposed to art, but art like theirs, and even reproductions of them. But I sure as fuck wish I could travel and find out.
It’s one of those curses where I could never afford to take off of work to see them, even if they’d been close enough I could afford to get there. Now that I’m disabled, I have the time, but even less money. But, even if I saved, I can’t really travel far at all. Even a day’s drive is murder that takes days to recover from.
I keep my eye out, though. I hope one of the museums I can reach will have access, or something like that.
I’ve experienced this like 3 to 4 times in total but the first time you fire up a new toaster makes this smell like nothing else and I find it extremely pleasant. It’s just impossible to replicate.
I was on a cave tour many years ago, and it was your typical screaming, squabbling, arguing, yelling, completely uncouth families.
Just as we were exiting the cave, I could tell that the guide sensed my frustration. I reached into my pocket, open my wallet and slipped him at 20 and just said my girlfriend and I are going to stay back for a while okay.
He nodded knowingly and slid the 20 into his pocket.
Anyways, the experience was spending an entire hour deep in a cave, in complete pitch blackness, without being able to hear a single sound. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
The ‘golden needle’ penetrated the veil of my mind. This is a term for a brief moment of enlightenment.
I once solved a Zen koan and experienced just such a moment. It was a spiritual, emotional, and physiological experience.
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A koan is a zen riddle which can’t be solved by logic. Probably the most famous example is ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping’.Being in a 1st world country
Having a family.
