{"id":123,"date":"2022-12-17T14:51:57","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T19:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/?p=123"},"modified":"2025-09-16T19:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T00:19:07","slug":"a-call-to-action-wisdom-from-night-train-to-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"A Call to Action: Wisdom from “Night Train to Lisbon”"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In 2020, I read Pascal Mercier’s Night Train to Lisbon<\/em><\/strong> (English translation \u00a9 2008) and was deeply moved by it. While an enjoyable read overall, the book has a powerful life philosophy threaded within. The quotes below outline that philosophy.<\/p>

The film is entertaining but substantially different from the book. Read the book.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Inevitability of Death<\/strong><\/p>

Every moment can be the last. Without the slightest premonition, in total ignorance, I will walk through an invisible wall, behind which is nothing, not even darkness. My next step can be the step through this wall. Isn’t it illogical to be afraid of it knowing that I shall no longer experience this sudden extinction?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Why Fear Death?<\/strong><\/p>

So, the fear of death might be described as the fear of not being able to become whom one had planned to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Call to Action<\/strong><\/p>

Ever since this morning I’ve been feeling that I’d like to make something different out of my life. That I don’t want to be … [my current self] … anymore. I have no idea what the new one will be. But I can’t put it off anymore. That is, my time is running out and there may not be much more of it left.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Choose a Path, but Don’t Choose Lightly<\/strong><\/p>

What could, what should be done with all the time now before us, open and unshaped, feather-light in its freedom and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Envision Your Better Life<\/strong><\/p>

Life is not what we live; it is what we imagine we are living<\/p><\/blockquote>

Take Your Life Seriously<\/strong><\/p>

What, if not myself, should I take seriously?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Urgency Accords the Freedom to Act<\/strong><\/p>

When a lifetime is short, no rules apply anymore.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Be Genuine<\/strong><\/p>

Do what contributes to making you more genuine, moves you closer to yourself.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Don’t Worry about What Others Think<\/strong><\/p>

In the years afterward, I fled whenever somebody began to understand me…. But one thing has remained: I don’t want anybody to understand me completely. I want to go through life unknown. The blindness of others is my safety and my freedom.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Retrace Your Steps to Find Yourself (if needed)<\/strong><\/p>

We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Regain Your Power by Granting Forgiveness<\/strong><\/p>

When others make us angry at them\u2014at their shamelessness, injustice, inconsideration\u2014then they exercise power over us, …<\/p><\/blockquote>

Your Courage and Actions will be Rewarded<\/strong><\/p>

It takes divine courage and divine strength to live with oneself in perfect truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2020, I read Pascal Mercier’s Night Train to Lisbon (English translation \u00a9 2008) and was deeply moved by it. While an enjoyable read overall, the book has a powerful life philosophy threaded within. The quotes below outline that philosophy. The film is entertaining but substantially different from the book. Read the book. The Inevitability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-be-smart","category-wisdom"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j30k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}