What Makes Leaving Hard Is the Love That Lives There

answered by The Analects, Book of Benevolence (Li Ren)

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🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

dir. Vincente Minnelli · USA

A family faces having to leave their beloved hometown house and move to an unfamiliar city. The children fear losing the familiar streets and neighbors, first loves and memories. The size of that fear equals the size of how much they loved and lived there. What does the sorrow of leaving tell us?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

When I must leave a familiar place, do I recognize that the fear is in fact the size of the love piled up there?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

父母在不遠遊

父母在不遠遊遊必有方

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

While parents live, do not travel far; and if you must, always make known where you go.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius' words know the weight of leaving a parent's side.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius' words know the weight of leaving a parent's side. To take travelling far as a heavy thing is not bondage but a sign that the love binding one there is great. The fear that surges when we must leave a beloved home and family in fact shows how deeply we had rooted there. I used to see the sorrow of parting as weakness. Yet the greater the reluctance to leave, the more it is proof that we were loved and loved in that place. I choose not to be ashamed of the fear before departure. It is a quiet testimony that I did not live in vain — that a true family was there.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If a departure or change lies ahead, measure the size of the love you received by the size of your reluctance to leave.

📖 Classic Source: The Analects, Book of Benevolence (Li Ren). 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.