Reflections after reading Montaigne's "Love of Life"
Nowadays, I often feel emotional about the scene, and I often feel inspired by it. Love and fun sometimes come quickly and you will miss them if you don't notice them; but they go away like a thread, and even if you forget them for a while, you will always think of them inadvertently.
As people pass middle age, this feeling becomes more and more obvious, especially when reading, there is always an inexplicable emotion or silence. Now that I think about it, it's not obvious. Sometimes it comes from an event you see, sometimes it comes from a person you hear, sometimes it comes from a piece of poetry you read. Even if you are slightly moved, you will think about it.
After practicing self-cultivation in the past two years, I finally have some free time and space to do what I want to do and what I love. So, I learned to take a stroll, and I also had free time to lazily browse through the books I bought in the past but had always put them away. Inadvertently, I would feel flustered, melancholy, and sigh for myself, others, and those things that I felt were worthwhile in my heart! Follow Those wise philosophers followed those sensational writers to appreciate life.
Recently, when I am reading a book, I often turn to a page, as if there is always a bookmark there. This is a short essay titled "Love of Life" [1], written by Michel Econ Montaigne (1533-1592), an important French thinker and essayist. So I was confused, why did I stay here so many times? The article didn't have many words, only about five or six hundred words, but the more I read, the more I felt that the article was logical and the ideas were so clear and rigorous. I thought about it several times. Sweeping by, they were all tightly held. I read and read and thought about it, so naturally I wanted to compare it. I compared myself, others, and everything I could think of to explore how I could comfort myself and encourage myself better.
"Love of Life" is one of Michel Econ Montaigne's masterpieces. It is short in length and contains only a few words, but it tells the true meaning of life. If the author mainly talks about "life" in the first half of the article, then in the second half the author wants to address "death", but in the final analysis, he still wants to talk about how to "live".
"Life and death" is an eternal theme in human history. Some people say that "the essence of life lies in death." I am a mortal, and I can never achieve the ambition of a great man, but I think even "great men" want to "survive" just like me, but they know how to "survive" better and can face it bravely and calmly. To "die". This reminds me of a person. He is not a "great man", nor should he be a "mortal" in my eyes. His name is XXX. He should be a deceased relative of mine, and I deeply admire him. During his treatment for terminal cancer, he was always full of passion for life and strong appearance. In the last moments of his life, I always looked at his tenacity and optimism as he fought against the disease, his calmness and rationality as his life passed, and his love and cherishment of life in the passing years. There was no negativity, no Decadent, no complaints, no irritability, but a cherishment of life and constant encouragement given to me.
For people who live a prosperous and busy life, death is far away, and perhaps they are not willing to mention it at all. But as we face aging or enduring illness, many of us fear death. A person cannot help but think about life, and it is superficial when he is young. Only when he is old will he become wiser. The profound thoughts filled in this late-life work are what make me imagine! Every time I read this short text, I see Montaigne’s in-depth thinking and final attitude towards life displayed.
For Montaigne, he once traveled in Europe for a long time, which undoubtedly broadened his horizons, enriched his thoughts, tempered his will, cultivated his sentiments, and retired to the countryside. The subsequent painstaking research and thinking enabled him to see through the mystery of "there must be life, there must be death", as he said in the article, "Be ready to say goodbye to life at any time, without regrets", "I see that there is not much time in life." , the more I want to increase the weight of my life" and "The shorter the remaining life is, the more I want to live it abundantly and fully." Isn't this the dialectical view on how we should love life and live a positive life? Isn't this exactly what we want to do? The core connotation reflected in the words "life lies in movement" is often said. From the perspective of material immortality, "life" and "death" just show different forms of our existence, but from the perspective of thinking, they are quite different.
I believe that loving life means loving real life, being able to be kind to others, living a life full of fun, and full of spirit. The foundation of your thinking must be to not place your trust in others, not in the future, let alone in the ethereal. In the next life, he will be a "muddleheaded person" [2]. In his later years, Montaigne said, "Our lives are gifted by nature, which is extremely superior. If we feel that we cannot bear the weight of life or waste this life in vain, we can only blame ourselves." If one day , when we really fall into self-blame, self-lament, and self-blame, is our life still meaningful?
It is true that life is full of many unknowable and uncontrollable factors. So how should we face it? In front of a wise man like Montaigne, this question is easy to answer - that is, grasp your own attitude towards life! Because a negative attitude will lead to a negative life, a positive attitude will inevitably lead to a negative life. Positive life.
Therefore, in the article "Love of Life", Montaigne said, "The joy of life depends on the degree of concern we have for life." If we also have this understanding, we can look at life from a higher perspective. We will not be agitated by the troubles in life, nor be depressed by the troubles in life; we will not be afraid of the pain in life, nor will we be hindered by the difficulties in life. Because we can freely interpret life and enjoy the sweetness of the water of life, our hearts are relieved.
I am not only moved by Montaigne's "Love of Life", but also by any praise and understanding of life. I used to go to Fuwai Hospital for medical treatment, and I would always see several anonymous poems on the walls of the waiting corridor. I remember that one of them was also titled "Love Life", and I recorded it. This little poem goes like this:
I don’t think about whether I can succeed
Since I have chosen the distance
I just care about the wind and rain
I don’t think about whether I can get love
Since I am loyal to the rose
I bravely reveal my sincerity
I don’t think about whether there will be coldness behind me Windy Rain
Since the goal is the horizon
What is left to the world is only the back view
I don’t think about whether the future will be flat or muddy
< p>As long as you love lifeEverything is expected
Who is the author of this little poem? Is it specially written for cardiovascular patients? Is it also imported? I don’t know I need to go check it out, but I think it’s very artistic. Compared with Montaigne's "Love of Life", I feel that prose is more straightforward and thorough than poetry, neither hidden nor hidden, neither false nor unreal. I think the authors of the small poems may not be as famous as Montaigne in the world of literature, but they express the same proposition from their own perspectives and in different styles, which is a firm love of life, which is equally worthy of emotion.
I feel sad, not because I have become negative, nor because I have lost my life goals, but because I remind and encourage myself as early as possible, hoping that I can continue to maintain a positive attitude, interest and enthusiasm for life. , and be able to persuade others to take action. Not only that, I also hope that my relatives can do the same, and I hope that all people with sound thinking can do the same, so that we can live in a harmonious society and live a happy life.
I felt sad for many days, and finally one day I suddenly discovered that Montaigne's "Love of Life" was just a sample essay in a high school textbook. I always thought about how I should really read it before graduating from high school. Have you ever read it? Millions of young students must have read it, so it’s no wonder that people known as the “post-80s” and “post-90s” are living so happily and confidently now.
Sad husband (sigh)! "Lian Po is old!".
We must keep up with the pace of the times, maintain youthful vitality, and work hard for a happy life... We all have no afterlife! We should not be "confused people".