Read classic book: The Moon and Sixpence
Would You Choose to Look Up at the Moon?
Highlight：
If you bemoan missing the sun, you will also miss the moon.
Our choice to be unconventional is not born of fear, but of necessity.
The craving for recognition is a bondage that may lead us farther from our true selves.
Ultimately, one’s life path must be walked alone, with no substitute, not even for a single step.
The Moon and Sixpence is a masterpiece by British author Maugham, and the oft-quoted line:
While others are busy picking up sixpences, he prefers to gaze at the moon.
Although not directly from the book, aptly captures the core message the author wishes to convey.
How to achieve self-worth and pursue inner peace has always been an important motivation and thought-provoking aspect of Maugham’s writing. This is also reflected in his other two representative works, ‘Of Human Bondage’ and ‘The Razor’s Edge’.
Maugham is called the ‘observer of human nature’ and the ‘pioneer of sarcasm’, not only because of his sharp language and insight into human nature, but also because the characters he portrays often deviate from the norm.
It’s because his clear-sighted words reveal the true face of love, reality, and dreams. I believe this is also why, crossing over a century, he is still beloved by many readers.
Mark Twain has a famous saying:
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
On the day of our birth, we acquire life; on the day we discover our purpose, we become our true selves.
One day marks the rebirth of the body, the other, the rebirth of the soul.
At the age of 35, Gauguin realized why his life felt tiresome; he no longer wished to be a mundane breadwinner, but aspired to be an uncertain painter.
Thus, he quit his well-paying, respectable job, renounced his genteel upper-class lifestyle, became an artist, and declared his intention to distance himself from “civilized society,” eventually retreating to a remote island, living in poverty, and devoting himself entirely to painting.
According to The New York Times, in early 2015, a new record was set for the highest price ever paid for an artwork. Gauguin’s 1892 creation, “When Will You Marry?”, fetched nearly $300 million, making it the most expensive painting sold to date.
After Gauguin’s death, Maugham traveled to the island where Gauguin had once lived, using him as inspiration for his novel “Moonlight and Sixpence,” which subsequently captivated the world.
Upon delving deeply into this book, one is struck with the realization: If I were to spend my entire life not heeding the voice within, I might never truly experience genuine happiness.
1.My blood surges with a yearning for a wilder, more adventurous life journey.
Every way of life holds its own beauty, and for those who cherish it, there is nothing better. However, for those with different aspirations, even the most beautiful of such lives would not bring happiness when lived.
Some enjoy the hustle and bustle, relish attending various gatherings, and take pleasure in associating with influential, prestigious individuals, engaging in mutual flattery.
In The Moon and Sixpence, Strickland’s wife embodies this type. She delights in mingling with high society, deeming it shameful for a woman to earn her own living, believing it is only noble to be supported by a man.
She is passionate about this lifestyle, envisioning a handsome son, a well-paid husband, and eventually, a comfortable retirement for the couple as the husband retires and the son inherits his business. Such a life, indeed, is considered desirable by many.
Yet, whether it is truly good or not depends on personal preference. If it doesn’t suit you, this so-called “beauty” could be nothing short of a prison. True beauty lies in living the life you love, not some universally acclaimed existence.
2.The longing for others’ approval may be humanity’s most deeply ingrained instinct.
Everyone yearns for validation from others. Toil tirelessly on something only to have it summarily dismissed by others is undoubtedly disheartening.
But does gaining their approval truly make our lives better?
Conversely, if you undertake certain actions that others do not endorse, will your life become significantly worse? No, regardless of their agreement or disagreement, others have no substantial impact on your life; ultimately, you must confront and resolve your issues, shouldering the burdens of existence yourself.
The craving for recognition is a form of bondage.
In seeking approval, you may cater to others, altering your own desires to do things that please them. This bondage may gradually estrange you from your true self.
3.If someone falls into water, it matters little whether they are skilled swimmers; they must somehow struggle ashore or drown.
Strickland abandons his wife and children, leaving without any forethought. Believing he has eloped with another woman, his wife later learns he intends to paint.
By then, he is already forty years old, a complete novice in painting, having attended night school for just one year.
Many start at eighteen, possibly achieving success by forty. He, however, begins at forty with virtually no foundation.
Is this feasible?
Some advise him to return to his previous life, emphasizing that his children need him, his wife needs him, his family needs him.
He refuses, stating that after supporting his wife for seventeen years, it is now her turn to support herself.
Others warn him that he might end up accomplishing nothing, amounting to nothing.
Yet he asserts that his urge to paint is irresistible, akin to a drowning person’s desperate fight for survival.
There is a force within him that compels him to paint.
Once someone knows why they live, everything else becomes insignificant. They must grasp that singular thing to feel alive, otherwise, they are mere automatons going through the motions.
4.I don’t want the past. Only the eternal present is important.
Life consists of three days: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Yesterday has passed, tomorrow has yet to arrive; what we can possess and hold onto is only today.
Whatever you owned in the past, it’s all gone; don’t let past possessions shackle your present life. Past hurts, too, are gone; remaining fixated on the past means living perpetually in pain.
One must constantly possess the ability to break free from the past and start anew, with the key being cherishing the present.
If you bemoan missing the sun, you will also miss the moon.
Obsessing over the past cannot change the present; instead, it turns the present into the past.
5.Living in this world, everything concerns others.
In this world, every move we make affects others, just as theirs affect us. For some, the influence is strong; for others, it’s faint.
Someone might counsel someone like Strickland:
Someday you’ll fall ill, grow old, and then you’ll still have to crawl back to the crowd.
In truth, many refrain from being themselves out of fear.
Time and again, we link ourselves to the crowd due to various worries — earnestly making money, for instance, so we can afford medical care when sick, yet many illnesses stem precisely from overworking to earn that money.
We dread being outcasts, fear exclusion, thus striving to maintain ties with others, sometimes even considering these connections vital to our lives.
Yet we must realize we can be ourselves, choose to be nonconformists. Our choice to be unconventional isn’t driven by fear, but by necessity. Being driven by fear to betray our hearts and return to the crowd is tantamount to betraying ourselves.
6.No one knows why we come into this world, nor where we’re headed.
Philosophy poses three questions:
Who am I?
Where do I come from?
Where am I going?
Once someone answers these three questions, they know why they live.
In reality, our arrival in this world is purely accidental, unexpected. Our parents don’t know why we’re here, let alone others. Only we can seek the answer to this question.
What’s certain is that we’re here not solely to be someone’s spouse or child, nor just as parents or offspring. Why we’re here, why we live, only we can uncover the answer.
Ask your heart: For what will you live your life? How can you make it fulfilling?
Yet many overlook one crucial point: spending a lifetime responsible for others while neglecting responsibility for themselves, only realizing at life’s end that they’ve never truly lived.
7.A contrived personality can’t disguise an ordinary mind.
An ordinary person remains ordinary even in a Buddha’s garb, while a Buddha remains resplendent even sans clothing.
Thoreau wrote in ‘Walden’: A dolt dressed up is still a dolt.
Many celebrities have faced public image collapses, frantically trying to appear studious only to be exposed as a joke, pretending to be honest only to reveal themselves as liars, struggling to maintain a virtuous image only to expose their despicable side.
Why do public images collapse?
Because they’re fake, mere facades. Falsehoods can never become true, no matter how hard you try; they’ll always be exposed someday.
So, what’s most important isn’t presenting a likable persona or conforming to others’ expectations; it’s being your authentic self, pursuing what your soul loves.
Wearing a mask too long, it grows onto your face; to remove it, you’d have to break bones and peel skin.
8.Each of us is an independent individual in this world.
Each person is imprisoned in a tower of iron, communicating with others only through symbols devoid of shared value, rendering their meaning vague and uncertain.
We pathetically strive to impart our precious inner insights to others, but they lack the capacity to receive them. Thus, we walk alone, side by side yet strangers, unable to comprehend our companions or be understood by them.
Van Gogh once said:
There’s a fire in every soul, but no one goes there for warmth. Passersby see only the faint smoke rising from the chimney, then continue on their way.
Whatever we do, others only see what they wish to see; they don’t see the whole picture, nor do they see the real you.
This determines our solitude, for no one but ourselves can fully understand us. Sometimes we desperately try to convey something to others, but no matter how hard we try, they can’t empathize.
Without empathy, there’s no full understanding.
Therefore, in living, we shouldn’t demand others’ understanding. We do our own thing, knowing for ourselves whether we’re happy or not.
Our life paths must be walked alone, no one can take a single step for us.
Epilogue:
We often wonder: How can life be lived to the fullest? How can we live without regrets?
But life is not a simple test paper, there are no standard answers.
The protagonist of ‘The Moon and Sixpence’, Strickland, saw the moon and pursued it regardless of everything else. Poverty and illness couldn’t stop him. Before he died, he painted a stunning masterpiece on a beautiful island.
He suddenly realized what he wanted to do and what kind of life he wanted.
The sixpence represents the mundane, the reality filled with the smell of firewood. The moon represents poetry and distance, the ideal born of rough hands, the longing in the heart.
Life is littered with sixpences, and everyone is busy looking down searching for sixpences, forgetting to look up and see the “moon” in their hearts.
Camus said:
All rebellion is an affirmation of strength.
When we are strong enough to be ourselves, that’s when we can choose our way of life and do what we love. But before that, we need to make ourselves strong and know what we truly want.
As Hesse said The awakened person has only one task, and that is to become oneself.
The world can only demand that those who live in it conform to the world. But those who truly live as themselves have no standards for life. They simply do what they love, pursue the life they desire, and strive to live their lives.
