X-Message-Number: 10314 From: Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 12:54:24 EDT Subject: fun Mr. Smith's suggestion (#10312), that we share ideas on furthering the enjoyment of life, touches on a couple of areas of chronic concern. One is the specific tendency of some people to think of life as a burden; another is the difficult problem of promoting more social interaction and camaraderie among immortalists. (Reading some of the news groups, one might get the impression that all we like to do is quarrel or prove that we are smarter than the next guy.) Whether Cryonet is the right venue is indeed a question, but there is little harm in some small ventures. I see no harm in an occasional note on personal experiences, tending to illustrate joie de vivre. If people read things that tend to make them like us or enjoy us, that could undermine a lot of unspoken negatives. As for direct personal contacts, most of our people tend to be extremely busy and not very receptive to staged occasions such as planned meetings. But contacts and mutual help in the context of other activities might be useful and enjoyable. For example, Mae loves company, and so do the dogs, and we have had a lot of visitors in the years we have been in Scottsdale, both family and through cryonics contacts. We have a guest bedroom, and as scheduling permits we are glad to put up visitors--even if they are here just to inspect Alcor. (If we don't know you, we'll check you out first.) (When visiting the Grand Canyon, don't get too near the edge--we lose a few tourists every year.) Robert Ettinger Cryonics Institute Immortalist Society http://www.cryonics.org Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10314