Do we live life in regrets, or do we just move
on with life? In my early 50’s now, what I call the sunset years, I think it’s
too late to examine this point. Now, I try and focus on what should I do to
make this life more meaningful.
But for all those who joined the college along
with my daughter this year under the cloud of COVID – it was a life changing
decision. Because that decision is an important one for your career & life.
Written by Matt Haig who was on the verge of
giving up his life and went through a depression this book looks at a
possibility that you are given an infinite no of choices of living life – from
being an Olympian, to a singer to a loving mother, Nora Seed the main
protagonist can choose from The Midnight Library – any life she wants to live,
or she can continue living the life she is living.
It is not a new philosophy – but it is written
in a manner which will appeal to many of us who live in regrets. While many of
us say bravely I don’t have regrets because that’s the right thing to
say but of many who after 2 drinks or in heated moment take out their regrets. Of
course, we have regrets it’s letting go of that which is difficult and it casts
it’s shadow on all our future endeavors.
As a book, first 100 odd pages I was not sure
where it is headed it was looking like a science fiction but from the blurb you
knew that it’s not. A library where you reach after you die was an interesting
concept, a hub which leads Nora Seed the protagonist to all the lives which she
could have. But after introducing the concept, it becomes a drab boring following
Nora Seed in all her lives – it is a straightforward story line & you know
that ultimately after experiencing many lives she will come back and continue
to live her own life. She does. The only thing which kept me going was the nice
quotes / life lessons which the librarian Elm tells Nora Seed.
Read Matt’s interview here:
Some of the quotes/life lessons which I went back and
read:
“Want is an interesting word. It means lack.
Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears
entirely.”
“You can choose choices but not outcomes.”
(This is my favorite – it fundamentally changes the lens, there are so many
parables of living life based on your choice – but that does not guarantee
outcome. For outcome you must work /persevere after making the choice – most of
us overlook this part.)
“The only way to learn is to live.”
(Rest is only concept and stories which you make up in your mind)
“We only know what we perceive. Everything we
experience is ultimately just a perception of it. It’s not what you look at
that matters, it’s what you see.” Thoreau (And what we see gets clouded by the memory
of your experiences in your life in the past.)
Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some
big & some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the
outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to
further variations…
The last quote summarizes the core of the book. Living
our life is a continuous process - As we live our life, we keep making
decisions – once decided you have to move forward because that is the only
road which you can traverse.
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