I Did Not Wish to Live What Was Not Life

answered by Thoreau, "Walden"

1854년 출판, 19세기 미국

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

The 400 Blows (1959)

dir. François Truffaut · France

A boy understood neither at home nor at school is pushed further and further outside the adult world through repeated misunderstanding and punishment. There is no certain answer where he is headed.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

In a world of oppressive adults, where does a child head toward?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.

💡 TL;DR

Thoreau wrote that he did not wish to live what was not life.

📝The Classic Answers

Thoreau wrote that he did not wish to live what was not life. Days spent being punished and branded without ever being understood are closer to a punishment mimicking life than to life itself. The sea the boy reaches at last, running with his own two feet, is not a fixed destination but the first direction he has ever chosen for himself. That frozen face holds no answer, but it is, at least, a face that has run away from what was not life. Whenever I feel I am living what is not life, I ask where my own sea, the one I must run toward, lies.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If a moment today feels like forcing yourself to live what is not life, write in one line the direction you truly wish to run toward.

📖 Classic Source: Thoreau, "Walden". Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.