Even With Coarse Food, Joy Is There Within

answered by The Analects, "Shu Er" (Transmitting)

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🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Mon Oncle (1958)

dir. Jacques Tati · France

A family living in a sleek house full of the latest machines stands in contrast to an uncle who strolls an old neighborhood at ease. The young nephew laughs more in the uncle's clumsy, whimsical world than in the convenient house. When we are busy chasing what is better, it asks whether we are missing that an ordinary day of walking and laughing together is in fact the most precious joy.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Chasing what is better and more comfortable, do I miss that the ordinary days of walking and laughing together are the greatest joy?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

樂亦在其中

飯疏食飲水曲肱而枕之樂亦在其中矣

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

With coarse food to eat, water to drink, and a bent arm for a pillow — joy, too, is there within it.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius said that with coarse food to eat, water to drink, and a bent arm for a pillow, joy is there within it too.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius said that with coarse food to eat, water to drink, and a bent arm for a pillow, joy is there within it too. Joy does not come from grand conditions but wells up from the heart that meets an ordinary day. A house filled smoothly with the latest machines is convenient yet has no laughter, while the world of an uncle who strolls an old neighborhood at ease is clumsy but warm. The child laughs more in that whimsical, warm world than in the convenient house. Chasing what is better and more comfortable, I let the plain time of walking and laughing together now slip by as trivial. Yet the joy that fills a life is already contained in those ordinary days. Rather than chasing what is missing, I choose to recognize one plain joy that is beside me now.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

Today, before wishing for something better, notice and keep one plain laugh shared with the person beside you.

📖 Classic Source: The Analects, "Shu Er" (Transmitting). 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.