RunningAHEAD - Topic: Wow...Heath Ledger is dead (page 3)

gracerunner

posted: 1/23/2008 at 11:50 AM

Quote from azredbirds052 on 1/23/2008 at 11:06 AM:

Seems a bit emotionally withdrawn and shallow to me, but hey...to each their own. There is a difference between grief over loss (when you know someone who dies or suffers a tragedy) and feeling sadness due to the fact that you are human and have a soul, and thus can feel empathy for the people left behind (who are truly grieving).

I am not emotionally withdrawn at all. Nor shallow. I'm making sane choices for emotional health. It would be shallow of me to pretend I really care, when I don't. I can spend all day feeling sad if I want to, just open the obits or go looking for tragedies the world over on the web, but I don't want to. I could even get into feeling sad about Heath Ledger, but I don't want to--it would be false. There is no punch in the gut. I have absolutely no grief. I have empathy, but why choose to feel empathy about one actor, or a two-year old over all others people that are in tragic articles on the web? I could spend all day looking up these articles and feeling badly. I would rather go through my day relating to what is happening in my immediate world. A newspaper article is just a story. Real life is different. I save my empathy for the people in my life, whether I know them or not. I feel empathy for what is happening now, for the real pain and suffering before me when it is there, not in newspaper articles. If I did, I would be just playing with my imagination and manufacturing emotion. Nothing wrong with that, inherently. Though I do have time to discuss it! Back to work!

azredbirds052

Maniac

posted: 1/23/2008 at 11:55 AM

I think that is probably a pretty good way to maintain your own mental health.

Marathon Maniac #6740

Goals for 2015:

Run 3 marathons (modified: Run 2 marathons--Lost Dutchman 02/2015 and Whiskey Row 05/2015)

Run a 50-miler (Ran a 53.8 mile race 11/14/2015)

Run 1,500 miles (uhhh...how about 1,400?)

Stay healthy

joe_h

The voice of mile 18

posted: 1/23/2008 at 11:59 AM

Quote from gracerunner on 1/23/2008 at 11:50 AM:

I am not emotionally withdrawn at all. Nor shallow. I'm making sane choices for emotional health. It would be shallow of me to pretend I really care, when I don't. quote> not to give you a hard time but how do you choose what to feel? are you german?

Tri Rule #1 of Triathlon Training/Racing - If Momma ain't happy nobody is happy

gracerunner

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:12 PM

Don't start stereotyping Germans! "I know nothing, nothing"--Shultz

zoom-zoom

rectumdamnnearkilledem

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:15 PM

You schweinhunt! Evil grin

Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

~ Sarah Kay

Anya_

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:16 PM

Who's gonna be number 3? 1) Brad Renfro 2) Heath Ledger 3) ? By the way, I thought Heath was a total hottie. As was Brad. Both too, young....

- Anya

sully708

My legs are killing me

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:22 PM

Quote from Anya_ on 1/23/2008 at 12:16 PM:

Who's gonna be number 3? 1) Brad Renfro 2) Heath Ledger 3) ? By the way, I thought Heath was a total hottie. As was Brad. Both too, young....

I never heard of either one of them. I guess I better start watching "Entertainment Tonight"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE

Ben_1415

Hey, nice marmot!

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:24 PM

I like how many of the comments relate the tragedy of the event to the age and "hotness" of the guy. So, if he was 40 and ugly, would it have been less "tragic"? Will no one start a thread when Dennis Franz dies?!

Ben

"The world is my country, science is my religion."-- Christiaan Huygens

Anya_

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:25 PM

Sully, you've never seen Brokeback Mountain? really , really , good movie with Heath Ledger... Brad Renfro was a teen actor, I saw him in Tom and Huck... He had great potential, but was a druggie...too bad... Heath was an Aussie, and pretty cool, non Hollywood type..

- Anya

GP160

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:47 PM

Quote from gracerunner on 1/23/2008 at 10:55 AM:

Otherwise, I'd go around feeling sad all the time, because everyone is dying all the time...

Yes, you have to block it out or you will go nuts. I see dead/dying people all the time. Suicides and drug overdoses are always tough. If you choose to get upset over every sick/dead person you see, life becomes very depressing. I personally have to limit my grief for the really sad cases. Sometimes you have to HTFU and deal with life. Just my take on what works.....

Ironman Louisville 8-30-09

Hiker Chick

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:51 PM

Quote from zoom-zoom on 1/23/2008 at 11:22 AM:

There are commercials that make me cry. Movies can really get to me (I still get very misty towards the end of "The Sixth Sense," even though I know the "surprise"). The trailer for "The Spirit of the Marathon" had me teary and I am certain that I will need tissues in the theater. I have listened to Music that has brought me to tears, too. I guess to a bean counter like EnduranceMan that makes me a pathetic mess...

I was listening to Eric Clapton's Tears from Heaven the other day on my way home and was bawling by the time the song was over. Pathetic. Smile

I've heard that song a million times and it never bothered me. I must have had a bad day at work. Roll eyes

I feel bad for his little girl. No, I won't send a card, but I'm a parent and I think of how my child would feel if I died. It's just plain sad to be in a situation where you lose a parent.

Michelle

obiebyke

posted: 1/23/2008 at 12:56 PM

I was a little sad for his kid, but of course I'm mostly sad because I thought he was a great actor and wanted him to make more movies. Typical selfish American.

Call me Ray (not Ishmael)

joe_h

The voice of mile 18

posted: 1/23/2008 at 1:24 PM

Quote from obiebyke on 1/23/2008 at 12:56 PM:

I was a little sad for his kid, but of course I'm mostly sad because I thought he was a great actor and wanted him to make more movies. Typical selfish American.

he has at least 1 more movie coming out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkT1wdRePco

Tri Rule #1 of Triathlon Training/Racing - If Momma ain't happy nobody is happy

zoom-zoom

rectumdamnnearkilledem

posted: 1/23/2008 at 1:27 PM

Quote from Hiker Chick on 1/23/2008 at 12:51 PM:

I was listening to Eric Clapton's Tears from Heaven the other day on my way home and was bawling by the time the song was over. Pathetic. I've heard that song a million times and it never bothered me. I must have had a bad day at work.

Of course, he wrote that song after his own child died. That makes it especially touching. Prince's "Sometimes it snows in April" gets me, too.

Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

~ Sarah Kay

gracerunner

posted: 1/23/2008 at 1:33 PM

Quote from Ben_1415 on 1/23/2008 at 12:24 PM:

I like how many of the comments relate the tragedy of the event to the age and "hotness" of the guy. So, if he was 40 and ugly, would it have been less "tragic"? Will no one start a thread when Dennis Franz dies?!

Good point. Ever notice how almost all memorial 5k's that are in honor of deceased females, that the girl is good-looking? I'll start a thread today before Dennis Franz dies. One of my favorite actors, and one of my wife's favorite butts. I won't be sad when he dies, as I don't know him, but I would like the chance to talk about his work, his art.

Wow...Heath Ledger is dead (Read 895 times)