# Most important values



## Almaviva

What is yours? Please explain.


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## Ravellian

What about the pursuit of knowledge? Science, philosophy, history, etc. That's mine. Music close second.


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## Almaviva

Ravellian said:


> What about the pursuit of knowledge? Science, philosophy, history, etc. That's mine. Music close second.


 Darn. Once a poll is posted, it can't be changed (except by an administrator). I forgot this one. I guess it will have to be included in "other." Or, I'd say you do it for pleasure, no? For your own enjoyment? Because if you do it for some sort of activism or in the hope of changing society, then it would be power.


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## Polednice

I always find these questions a little difficult.

Money? No. I tend to hoard it rather than spend it, so I don't notice it much.
Pleasure? Not really. Though if I interpret it as 'emotions', or deriving pleasure from emotions (artistic expression _etc._), then this would be my second choice.
Power? I'm a social recluse, and this kind of thing has never interested me.
Religion? None! 
Freedom? I _looooove_ my freedom, of course, but I take it as much for granted as the next first world university student. 
Health? I'm never in good health any more!

So the one I've left until last is love. I almost hate myself for choosing it, because the Polednice of 1 year ago would certainly not have stood for it! I'd have gone straight for anything with regards to emotional expression, which is still the most important thing in my life, but since I fell in love a little while ago I've just become the soppiest, most loathsome ******* imaginable.


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## Almaviva

I'm taking the very controversial stance of picking money, while when I was younger I'd have picked love or pleasure.
I know my choice won't be popular.
But I'm getting old and cynical, and I'm starting to realize that money does buy security (freedom), and pleasure, and power, and pays for health maintenance, it can be used for compassion (charity)... it doesn't buy love, but I got love. One can have love regardless of how much money one has... but love without money often goes sour as people struggle and struggle and fight and fall apart. 
I think youngsters often underestimate the value of money. 
It is, after all, what moves the world.
People look at it with a very negative gaze.
It is not politically correct to say that money is important.
But as you get older, you realize how pervasive and fundamental it is.

So yes, yell at me, call me names, lower your opinion of me if you will, but I'm being bold enough to pick money.


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## Ukko

I chose freedom. I am a humanist, which colors the value I place on freedom.


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## Ludders

This is really difficult. I've managed to narrow it down to three, but i'm still trying to decide!


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## Rasa

Love - Money - Health. Pick 2.


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## regressivetransphobe

"Power is the morality of men who stand out from the rest, and it is also mine." - Beethoven

In little abstract, personal ways. I'm not self-loathing enough to think that I am my possessions and the money in my pocket.


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## Kopachris

I don't have a "most important" value, as I believe all of the above values are needed together. It's impossible to be truly happy with only one or two of those values realized (unless you're a monk/nun, in which case I don't think you'd be replying to an Internet poll). Without one, you can't really enjoy the others. Without freedom, you can't enjoy religion, money, love...; without pleasure, you can't enjoy anything at all...; without power, you can't enjoy freedom and you're unlikely to enjoy love or religion; without money, you can't afford to enjoy pleasure, power, health, or freedom... You see what I mean?


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## Huilunsoittaja

"Pleasure" is an interesting one. Music is very very valuable to me. But the thing is, everything makes clearer sense through the Christian worldview. With God, music is so much more powerful, as well as all other arts. Therefore, my spirituality is top priority, because it opens up everything else to greater, fuller enjoyment.


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## Meaghan

Oh, I disgust myself--I picked love. Cheesy as heck, but still for me the obvious choice. I'd be even more lost without my family than I'd be without music.


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## Sid James

*@ Huilunsoittaja* - Since you're religious, do you like sacred (eg. choral) musics? I can't tell from what you've been posting on TC. I ask as I like choral musics - esp. things like masses, motets, oratorios, this stuff - & am interested if that's you're kind of thing as well, just for curiosity (I'm not particularly religious, btw, but I do like the spiritual aspects of music (in general) as you discuss)...


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## beethovenian

Hedonism anyone? 
We all do things that ultimately lead to pleasure for ourself and avoid those that cause pain to us. 
Money, Love, Health and such are only mere means to attain pleasure or cause pain.


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## violadude

Well people say money can't buy happiness, but I disagree. If you get into a car crash and become severely injured, you're going to be pretty happy you have money to pay for those hospital bills

If you live with your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband/whatever but you guys have bills up the hooha to pay, you're not gonna be happy, you're gonna be stressed. But if you got money, you can pay all your bills and buy your happiness back.

If you're sad because the last recording of a rare piece of music goes out of stock (AMAZON) just think, if you had money, you could have bought that rare piece of music and been happy


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## Sid James

violadude said:


> If you're sad because the last recording of a rare piece of music goes out of stock (AMAZON) just think, if you had money, you could have bought that rare piece of music and been happy


Yeah, but then another, & another, & another recording comes along, you want to get that & you're not happy until you do. The Buddhists call these "attachments." But I get your point strongly, I wouldn't mind a few more dollars in my wallet, for sure...


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## violadude

Sid James said:


> Yeah, but then another, & another, & another recording comes along, you want to get that & you're not happy until you do. The Buddhists call these "attachments." But I get your point strongly, I wouldn't mind a few more dollars in my wallet, for sure...


Very true. I am quite addicted to purchasing CDs, as I suspect might be the case with many of us.


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## Sid James

violadude said:


> Very true. I am quite addicted to purchasing CDs, as I suspect might be the case with many of us.


Well I myself am in kind of that way with live performances, can't get enough of them, but try to limit it to say a couple/few a month. But yes, it's very difficult for me to walk into a cd/music shop & not end up walking out with something in my hand!!! This thing is a bit of a blessing & a curse at the same time, as the well-worn cliche goes!...


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## Weston

Love conquers all.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Almaviva said:


> I'm taking the very controversial stance of picking money, while when I was younger I'd have picked love or pleasure.
> I know my choice won't be popular.
> But I'm getting old and cynical, and I'm starting to realize that money does buy security (freedom), and pleasure, and power, and pays for health maintenance, it can be used for compassion (charity)... it doesn't buy love, but I got love. One can have love regardless of how much money one has... but love without money often goes sour as people struggle and struggle and fight and fall apart.
> I think youngsters often underestimate the value of money.
> It is, after all, what moves the world.
> People look at it with a very negative gaze.
> It is not politically correct to say that money is important.
> But as you get older, you realize how pervasive and fundamental it is.
> 
> So yes, yell at me, call me names, lower your opinion of me if you will, but I'm being bold enough to pick money.


It's alright. There's nothing particularly controversial about picking "money" from the list above, which was what I just did. My view is all of the above makes one's life complete, relatively speaking, and money is the common ground to it all, even encompassing freedom (and I include financial freedom).


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## starthrower

Health, contentment, enjoyable work, friendship/companionship


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## sospiro

Health over everything else.

Maybe it's because of my age and my continuing good health is something I thank my stars for each day or maybe it's because I have lost young people so dear to me through illness.

Recently a much loved 40-something colleague was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The prognosis isn't good & survival rate for this type of cancer is very low so he hasn't got long. Money won't save my friend.

I bet Christopher Reeve would have swapped his millions to have been able to walk again.


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## Aramis

Beauty. It includes all, if not considered in a narrow way. They say God is love but - if he exists - he is beauty. Beauty is not love but love is the beauty. When they ask me "why did you become Byronic hero?", I answer: because it is beautiful thing to be. When I got money I don't hesitate to spend it as fast as I can for some beautiful purpose. When you keep money for too long you may stink with it. Beauty may provide greatest of pleasures and comfort you in greatest sufferings - if they take their source in beauty and it's for you to decide if they will. Everything in your life may come from it. Beauty is a virtue, goal and sense.


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## TxllxT

Grace. Part of my daily bread is visiting people: People of high age, people who are ill, handicapped, people who have been taken up in a psychiatric institution, people who have reached the last hours of their earthly life. But also young people who want to get married, people who are on holiday... When meeting people I'm looking forward for grace. Recently I met the parents of a 38-year old mother (of two sons), who died from a cancer tumor in the brain. They shared with me how this daughter was comforting them (not: they comforting her): that's grace.
I do not like ticking conceptboxes 'Religion (spirituality)', because it makes me think of powerful worldchurchleaders like the pope, who IMO sadly fail to receive and say grace.


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## Manxfeeder

I feel the same way as Huilunsoittaja and Txllxt. My concern is that my faith is practiced more than preached. And I also agree with Alexander Pope:

For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right:
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind’s concern is charity.


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## Polednice

violadude said:


> Well people say money can't buy happiness, but I disagree. If you get into a car crash and become severely injured, you're going to be pretty happy you have money to pay for those hospital bills
> 
> If you live with your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband/whatever but you guys have bills up the hooha to pay, you're not gonna be happy, you're gonna be stressed. But if you got money, you can pay all your bills and buy your happiness back.
> 
> If you're sad because the last recording of a rare piece of music goes out of stock (AMAZON) just think, if you had money, you could have bought that rare piece of music and been happy


Pfff, I don't need money for those things!

Find myself in a car crash? Hooray for living in a _civilised_ country where we have a nationalised health service, and so no bills!

Need to pay the rent and utilities? Well I'll just make sure that my partner is the bread-winner, not me!

Missed out on a rare recording? Bit torrent! 

And, of course, you always get free stuff when you have blonde hair and big boobs (though, admittedly, I may have those but it's because I'm male and chubby  ).


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## starthrower

sospiro said:


> Health over everything else.
> 
> Maybe it's because of my age and my continuing good health is something I thank my stars for each day or maybe it's because I have lost young people so dear to me through illness.
> 
> Recently a much loved 40-something colleague was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The prognosis isn't good & survival rate for this type of cancer is very low so he hasn't got long. Money won't save my friend.
> 
> I bet Christopher Reeve would have swapped his millions to have been able to walk again.


Yes! It's strange to see health at the bottom of the poll. One my oldest friends has been going through hell battling lung cancer and the dreaded chemo treatments. No fun at all.


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## elgar's ghost

I would have said peace - once attained then people can work on some of the others.


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## Chris

I've voted Religion, as I don't want anything that doesn't have God in it.

'If there are pleasures in hell let us flee them' (C.S. Lewis)


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## graaf

The way I understand health (both physical and mental) is all I need.

Basicaly everything else (on this list or off of it) is just means to an end of health.


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## World Violist

I picked love. Money can't be too important for me because I know I'll never have any anytime soon. Pleasure? No. Power is nice but not really my kind of thing to deal with. Religion used to be really important to me, but over the years I've gotten rather cynical and stuff, so while I believe in stuff I don't obsess over it. Freedom is a joke in modern America.

Health is actually a relatively close second. I had a kidney stone last year, and since I did some research on them I know that they're preventable (delayable?) based on health choices, so I'm eating healthier blah blah blah, even though I still stress out about stuff. The thing that keeps health at second place is that, while I care for it, I wouldn't necessarily say that it occupies a real "place" in me, you know? My friends and family are important in a different way that feels more valuable to me as a person.


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## TresPicos

Love and freedom at the top, money and power at the bottom. 

Health, I just take for granted, like so many others.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Sid James said:


> *@ Huilunsoittaja* - Since you're religious, do you like sacred (eg. choral) musics? I can't tell from what you've been posting on TC. I ask as I like choral musics - esp. things like masses, motets, oratorios, this stuff - & am interested if that's you're kind of thing as well, just for curiosity (I'm not particularly religious, btw, but I do like the spiritual aspects of music (in general) as you discuss)...


Yes I do like choral music, but ironically not for the same reason. There are only a few choral works I've known (some of them are the Brahms Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah) where not only the music but the _words _are very nourishing to me. I love the words in the Brahms Requiem, about comfort and hope after death. I like the choral texture in general.

I must admit that although I'm so-so about Bach's music, I'm struck by how poetic his words are, and quite Biblically inspired. I went and saw a part of the Christmas Oratorio this past winter, I was struck by the amount of truth expressed in it. Although the music was fine (Bach isn't a favorite composer), I found the words absolutely necessary to understanding's Bach's inspiration. I've noticed that a lot of people here on Talk Classical don't listen to Bach for the words, but only the music. I challenge some of you to look at the words while listening to his choral works.

But there's a whole other aspect that I've come to perceive with "Secular" classical music. Just because the composer didn't write "SDG" on top of the script, or even furthermore, didn't _believe _in God but believed in his man-centered creative ability, doesn't mean that their music isn't God-glorifying. Humans are made in the image of God, therefore they can't help making and being attracted to things like God. I find anything that reveals truth, beauty, goodness, order, harmony, etc. glorify God, because those are characteristic of what God truly is: truth, beauty, order, harmony, etc. God uses artists whether they want to be used or not. 

To stretch it even further, I was happy to discover that Prokofiev (although I'm pretty sure he wasn't a Christian) had a sense that his music wasn't his own. For example, he claimed that his Symphony No.5 wasn't from his mind, but that it came _to_ him, that is, something he wasn't in control of. Even those of the secular world cannot always claim that their work is entirely their own, because it's actually God who gave them their talent, and their inspiration to make music in the first place. Musicians, and all Artists in general, are simply mediums.

So, I hope that says a little about what this "Christian Worldview" is. I consider myself a Christian Hedonist in that I'm not opposed to pleasure in this world, music being the greatest for me personally, but I view this pleasure as an opportunity to thank God for it. _Man's chief end is to glorifying God and to enjoy him forever,_ anyone heard that phrase before? The Heidelberg Catechism.

I imagine a large number of you disagreeing entirely with my ideas. But then again, they're not my own.  I couldn't find the right quote, but C.S. Lewis said something similar to what I've just said, that it's proud to think that art comes from oneself alone since God is the ultimate creator of all.

I found another interesting quote by him, which will end my rather long post:

_Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
C. S. Lewis_


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## Meaghan

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Yes I do like choral music, but ironically not for the same reason. There are only a few choral works I've known (some of them are the Brahms Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah) where not only the music but the _words _are very nourishing to me. I love the words in the Brahms Requiem, about comfort and hope after death. I like the choral texture in general.


The text of Ein Deutches Requiem really sets it apart for me, and is part of why it is my favorite requiem. I like that it does not shout about Judgment Day like Verdi's and Berlioz's and others, and that it talks about comfort for the bereaved. The Dies Irae is cool and all, but Brahms had the right idea in writing a requiem without it.


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## Manxfeeder

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I must admit that although I'm so-so about Bach's music, I'm struck by how poetic his words are, and quite Biblically inspired. I went and saw a part of the Christmas Oratorio this past winter, I was struck by the amount of truth expressed in it. Although the music was fine (Bach isn't a favorite composer), I found the words absolutely necessary to understanding's Bach's inspiration.


A while ago, for about six months, every night I had to put my head in a traction device for 30 minutes, so I used that time of sitting to go through each of Bach's cantatas, one a night, centering on listening with the text. I was amazed at how every emotion I was experiencing that year ended up in one of the cantatas and was addressed in a way that it introduced the problem, then it helped bring me through to a solution.

It did take a while, but still, it's an experience I would not discourage anyone from pursuing.


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## mmsbls

Ravellian said:


> What about the pursuit of knowledge? Science, philosophy, history, etc. That's mine. Music close second.


I agree with pursuit of knowledge. I'm a scientist through and through. When I don't understand something (even in areas I'm less interested in), I can't help thinking about it for awhile. When I am interested, it can be a decades long battle to understand.


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## violadude

World Violist said:


> I picked love. Money can't be too important for me because I know I'll never have any anytime soon. Pleasure? No. Power is nice but not really my kind of thing to deal with. Religion used to be really important to me, but over the years I've gotten rather cynical and stuff, so while I believe in stuff I don't obsess over it. Freedom is a joke in modern America.
> 
> Health is actually a relatively close second. I had a kidney stone last year, and since I did some research on them I know that they're preventable (delayable?) based on health choices, so I'm eating healthier blah blah blah, even though I still stress out about stuff. The thing that keeps health at second place is that, while I care for it, I wouldn't necessarily say that it occupies a real "place" in me, you know? My friends and family are important in a different way that feels more valuable to me as a person.


I had a kidney stone a couple months ago. Painful stuff. Mine was even worse because it decided to go ahead and make my ureter its permanent home.


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## Polednice

violadude said:


> I had a kidney stone a couple months ago. Painful stuff. Mine was even worse because it decided to go ahead and make my ureter its permanent home.


Hmmmm, I had a kidney stone a few months ago too. What's with all the folks with stones around here?! Strangury is unpleasant stuff!


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## Yoshi

I wanted to choose love but... I hardly have any friends, my family is falling apart and anyone I fell in love with disappointed me to the point that I completely gave up.


So, I voted for freedom, because I think it's what I find more important to me right now.

Edit: Oh if the option for the pursuit of knowledge was on the poll, I would have voted for that instead.


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## Almaviva

Very interesting responses, folks, thank you all. Sorry for not having though of pursuit of knowledge, it could have been a valid option.

My biggest surprise is, nobody is picking pleasure? I guess the person who said hedonism could have clicked on it, I don't know why it didn't happen.

And yes, health has been clearly under-rated, so far tied for fourth place. I guess our users are mostly healthy and take it for granted.

As I expected, money is not popular...


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## jurianbai

religion and health 'cause it's mandatory.... lol.. but money is for realistic and freedom for idealism.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

jurianbai said:


> religion and health 'cause it's mandatory.... lol.. but money is for realistic and freedom for idealism.


You certainly need to have the cash in order to be stocking up on SQ CDs that you have been hoarding! (Check out the CD I bought recently on the three (complete) violin concertos of Michael Haydn, younger-bro of Joseph, Hungaroton label; _Latest Purchases_ thread).


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## rojo

Love and freedom.

Also, honesty and justice.


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## violadude

Polednice said:


> Hmmmm, I had a kidney stone a few months ago too. What's with all the folks with stones around here?! Strangury is unpleasant stuff!


Eh, I don't mind surgery. For some reason all that stuff like hospitals and doctors cutting me open don't bother me that much.


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## rojo

I'd like to say, that I think it's very beautiful that (so far) love leads the way in this poll. Let it always lead the way...

I'd like to add democracy to my list as well.


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## Air

This was an interesting question to answer.

I had to think deeply about which value was the most necessary and sufficient to my life and not simply a subset or a criterion of another value.

This was the case with money. If material possessions had no worth, then money also would have no value. Money can buy power, and can buy pleasure and health, but it's merely a criterion to get to these things. And it's not necessarily sufficient either - it doesn't necessarily buy these things, though it does have a major impact on one's ability to achieve them.

Pleasure and power are both weak since they are fleeting states and depend heavily on subjective standards, and love basically encompasses these as well. There's something uncomfortable about putting pleasure as an end goal in life - and so many would hate to admit that it is. I think people like to feel like they are beyond simply surface things like pleasure.

I would put love as my second most important value. Though I value freedom, I don't think that it is exclusively good, nor do I think that it is fully possible in the construct of society today. Health, on the other hand, is simply not something I've really worried about in my daily life yet - like many others here, I'm prone to taking it for granted. I think its importance increases only when health issues become more prevalent. Right now, though, it seems like a criterion to maintain other values rather than an ends in and of itself.

Finally, we come to my choice of spirituality. It's not just a religious thing for me, though all aspects of spirituality do link back to the wonder of human beings in the face of who the upper being really is. It doesn't have to be an upper being, but for me it is. 

I simply can't live life without spirituality in it. Call it a weakness, but for me, it's the greatest asset man can have. For me, it encompasses all other values including the pursuit of knowledge which many have mentioned here. It's not a feeling that is easily described, but think - Alyosha kissing the earth when he exits the monastery in the Brothers Karamazov, the wonder of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican and the history and spirituality that comes with it, the love death at the end of Tristan und Isolde which is ultimately a statement of wonder in love rather than simply love, the Passion, standing at the summit of the Alps or the Himalayas and looking down at the world beneath oneself... being part of the plan, the whole... I think it's something that every human being, not just those that are religious, can understand.


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## presto

These polls are often daft as I want to tick off more than just the one option.


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## KaerbEmEvig

Wisdom and knowledge.


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## Polednice

violadude said:


> Eh, I don't mind surgery. For some reason all that stuff like hospitals and doctors cutting me open don't bother me that much.


Ah, lucky you! Surgery is indeed fine - I just had to wait for mine to leave my body of its own accord. Very, very, very, very painfully.


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## science

As a permanently lonely person I have to choose "love." 

I'm not saying that I could live without the others, for instance money. But when I think, "What is money for?" the answers that come to me essentially mean that it's for buying love. Very few pleasures are as fun alone as they are shared with someone loved. And so on. 

There is a character in Dostoyevsky who loves humanity but hates all of the people she knows. I think I'm the opposite of that.


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## Polednice

science said:


> There is a character in Dostoyevsky who loves humanity but hates all of the people she knows. I think I'm the opposite of that.


Oooo, she sounds like me!  What character is that?


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## kg4fxg

Ravellian said:


> What about the pursuit of knowledge? Science, philosophy, history, etc. That's mine. Music close second.


This first thing I thought of was knowledge when I went looking to make a selection. I thought being a CPA money would be possible? It has not happened. Spending three years in seminary I thought religion would be important, I am more an atheist today (another story). Pleasure, not sure what that is....I am more a married celibate if it refers to sex. I value Philosophy most above everything else.


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## Almaviva

presto said:


> These polls are often daft as I want to tick off more than just the one option.


 The trick is to make your mind up, narrow it down and pick just one. The challenge of doing it is part of the fun of such polls.


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## Ukko

Almaviva said:


> The trick is to make your mind up, narrow it down and pick just one. The challenge of doing it is part of the fun of such polls.


Unfortunately, the result is often an untruth. It still may be fun, but poll results end up not telling the truth either.


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## kg4fxg

Who is John Galt?
What would Ayn Rand do?


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## Klavierspieler

1. God
2. Love
3. Health


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## Sid James

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Yes I do like choral music, but ironically not for the same reason. There are only a few choral works I've known (some of them are the Brahms Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah) where not only the music but the _words _are very nourishing to me. I love the words in the Brahms Requiem, about comfort and hope after death. I like the choral texture in general.


Thanks for your thoughts. Funny you mention those works - Brahms, Mendelssohn - I've got a recording of the former & want to hear the latter. I've also got recently Elgar's Gerontius. Want to get into that in much depth when time/headspace available, I loved it when I heard it on air a while back. You're right about composers expressing the old texts, bringing them to life. This is apparent even when I go to hear these live, never heard them before. If they provide translations, I'm always following along with the texts. Even if I don't know the work or composer, I end up connecting so much with what they are expressing through how originally they make these ancient texts relevant, whether it's composed centuries ago or just now...



> To stretch it even further, I was happy to discover that Prokofiev (although I'm pretty sure he wasn't a Christian) had a sense that his music wasn't his own. For example, he claimed that his Symphony No.5 wasn't from his mind, but that it came _to_ him, that is, something he wasn't in control of. Even those of the secular world cannot always claim that their work is entirely their own, because it's actually God who gave them their talent, and their inspiration to make music in the first place. Musicians, and all Artists in general, are simply mediums.


Haydn was like that, but I suppose his era was more "religious?" At the end of the premiere of The Creation, during the applause, Haydn pointed to the ceiling towards the heavens, and said that's where he got his inspiration from. As I said, I'm not esp. religious (or against) but I admire Haydn's simplicity and down to earth attitude for doing that kind of thing. This "no frills" & "to the point" view is apparent in his music to me strongly, among other things, I think he definitely was a kind of "modern thinker" (apart from his musical innovations). His ego was basically zero, he had high praise for Mozart & Beethoven (even though he didn't like even some/many of the latter's "early period" works, he said Beethoven was the real deal as far as talent & genius were concerned, he could separate his personal opinion with what we think today re Beethoven's talents/genius)...



Almaviva said:


> My biggest surprise is, nobody is picking pleasure? I guess the person who said hedonism could have clicked on it, I don't know why it didn't happen...


Looks like us classical music fans are a quite "serious" & "philosophical" bunch!


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## Il_Penseroso

In the first place "Health", once you loose it, you just know the real worth of it ... In the second place "Honesty" for me ...


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## Polednice

Il_Penseroso said:


> In the first place "Health", once you loose it, you just know the real worth of it ... In the second place "Honesty" for me ...


I wonder how bad someone's health has to be to make them value it above all else? I speak from experience as someone with a severe chronic condition, and who has been in a lot of pain, as I still find myself thinking that, given the choice, I would much rather be guaranteed love than health.


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## Il_Penseroso

Polednice said:


> I wonder how bad someone's health has to be to make them value it above all else? I speak from experience as someone with a sever chronic condition, and who has been in a lot of pain, as I still find myself thinking that, given the choice, I would still much rather be guaranteed love than health.


I undersand you, you're a nice person to prefer love under that condition, but everybody's experience is his/her own ...


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## sabrina

Of course, I hope I stay healthy. I love love! But I love music so much I am the only weirdo choosing Pleasure in the poll. Just for the sake of music.
And freedom is so damn important for me.


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## Klavierspieler

sabrina said:


> Of course, I hope I stay healthy. I love love! But I love music so much I am the only weirdo choosing Pleasure in the poll. Just for the sake of music.
> And freedom is so damn important for me.


Blast it! I forgot about music, it belongs right above health and below love.


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## kv466

While I enjoy all of the pleasures of life and indulge, perhaps, more than the common fellow...the most important thing for me is the love I feel for my entire family and for the family I've created outside of blood...I have money...that's easy...love is something that is truly work and there are many aspects to maintaining it...being part of such a large family it is very important to have unity...so, yeah...love


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## Xaltotun

Love. But I have a specific definition for it, which is hard to explain. It's compassion, it's selflessness, it's self-sacrifice, it's complete abstaining from violence and cruelty, it's the final movement of Mahler's 3rd, it's Brünnhilde leaping to the fire, it's Gretchen (or Beatrice) saving Faust's (or Dante's) soul, it's Parsifal (or Buddha) gaining enlightenment through compassion, Isolde melting away from existence itself to join Tristan in the ineffable... that sort of thing. Complete, total, unrequited, selfless love, without the need to get anything in return... perhaps towards one person, but through that person, towards existence itself. Umm. Yeah.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

The 2nd one has gotta be the one


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## SixFootScowl

I voted other and what I mean is "All of the Above"!


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## Phil loves classical

Love, but surprisingly is the one that can cause the most pain in the list.


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## Capeditiea

I chose other simply because there was no choice for nature. :3


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## starthrower

Love, health, and freedom. With those basic necessities, one can enjoy a few pleasures if one has any money.


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