For every action, there is an equal and opposite and reaction. Rocket ship blasts off. The most common image that comes to mind. But what about life? Kids hate school. They love summer. One bad, one good. The happiness and sadness cannot exist without the other. No school, no joy in not going.

 

I hate running, but I love being in shape. Good and bad. Without running a 5k every week, I would be fat.

 

You cannot name something good without naming the bad side. 1-1=0 something positive minus something positive (negative) equals zero. Happiness minus sadness is nothing. Math and life join.

 

Create your own equations about your life and share

Not everything is a zero-sum game. There are net gains

 

"I hate running, but I love being in shape. Good and bad. Without running a 5k every week, I would be fat."

 

my version:

I love cycling, and I love being in shape. Good without bad. Without cycling 200k every week, I would be fat.

 

I admit I have the optimism of a stoned puppy and see the best in everything - but I couldn't disagree more with your assertion that there is a bad cancelling out every good. Science, education, Bach, The Rolling Stones, homegrown cherry tomatoes in freshly baked pitta, Scienceforums.net, hi-viz lycra, Piero Della Francesca, the sort of football game when you realise that Bill Shankley was right....

You are flawed

You are flawed

Was that a serious remark, in which case please argue your case. If not a smiley would have been helpful.

 

 

Does your argument boil down to TANSTAAFL?

You are flawed

 

Undoubtedly - last time I checked I was human with all the attendant frailties, design flaws, and persistent neuroses. I enjoy stuff without the perverse need to seek a cost - and that's another flaw; so be it. Just be sure; I provided a light-hearted list of things I feel have a little-to-no downside for a comparatively enormous upside and your response was three words being either an insult or a joke.

 

During the late summer and early autumn I regularly lunch off the fruit growing in my garden - the trees were planted many years before I was born and various family-members take great pleasure in lopping bits off etc when the fancy takes them; just curious - how is that not free?

You pay council tax, or the equivalent, in order to be allowed to continue to live in the house, even if you inherited it.

You pay council tax, or the equivalent, in order to be allowed to continue to live in the house, even if you inherited it.

 

But the lunch (or the absence of it) has no bearing on the payment of council tax - I pay even if I concrete over the garden (and then I get flooding as well)

But if you do not pay, then you are evicted, or jailed, or at the very least have to take up your time to justify your non-payment. The result is that you have paid for the fruit either by paying money to retain the right to have access to it, or by using your time to defend that right.