With the Lantern Festival passing, the Spring Festival has come to an end. The epidemic is still raging, and for many people, it has just passed another year of "local festivals".
Looking back, Liu Qing's summary in the 2018 annual review of Western thought, "We are entering a period of 'chaos becoming the new normal'", has become a certain degree of prediction.
Every New Year's Day, chaos and tearing are more intuitive. Whether they go home or not, people are sandwiched between their hometown and the city, and there is a subtle confusion, as if they are traveling between two different worlds. In the hometown, everyone has basically stabilized, and the "peer pressure" has not decreased; in the city, the freedom is still the same, the risk of moving forward has increased, and the cost of exploring hobbies and changing tracks is also increasing.
"Unborn"
Opportunities may seem diverse, but as uncertainty increases, the path we can choose is narrower and narrower. Many times, we are looking for the safest path, calculating gains and losses before acting, afraid that if we are not careful, we will fail.
The poet Rilke once said, "Experience a life full of problems, and maybe one day, unconsciously, you will gradually live a life full of answers."
The bright future is like an oasis, and before you find it, you must first cross the reckless yellow sand. But the most worrying situation is that we are always fleeing and pursuing, without knowing where we will go.
01.
Life is confusing, and no one knows where the standard answer is
Sometimes we may be more like a gyroscope than a screw, always spinning around in place and unable to stop.
Work and study are difficult to bring enough sense of meaning, easy to feel bored, want to change a lifestyle, but also can't say what they want. Uncertainty accompanies the current life, and the more uncertain we are, the more anxious we are, panicked, and want to leave quickly.
Sociologist Xiang Biao describes this state as "levitation", where people are always in a state of negation, denying the meaning of their actions, "what is satisfactory to him, he is not clear, he only knows to get rid of the present." But where to go? I don't know."
This almost inevitably leads to anxiety, problems that are not solved, and old confusions are repeated even in new industries and new places. We instinctively know we're unhappy, but we can't find any effective way to cope.
In Xiang Biao's view, an essential feature of "suspension" is the suspension of the present. People don't face the present directly, they always want to move into the future, "the meaning of the present is just a step towards the future, so the sooner you cross this moment, the better.".
However, escaping from the present does not lead us to a better future, but only adds more confusion – how do we find a direction we want to work in at a time when trial and error are expensive? If you have found it, how do you face the risk of stepping on the air and move forward?
"Driving My Car"
In "The West Since 2000," Liu Qing said, "The most frightening situation is not the turmoil and strife itself, but the deep immersion in it, but the inability to recognize and grasp, so we are at a loss." The loss of cognitive coordinates and the confusion of the basis for judgment may be a silhouette of the portrait of the times."
In this case, stability seems to be a better state of life, at least it can provide a definite sense of security for life, and it seems unrealistic to try to find a goal, or to pursue personal hobbies and dreams.
However, the arranged path looks simple and direct, but it also looks at the head. If we stop here, we will never be able to dispel our confusion and touch another breadth of life.
More often than not, our inner torment can't help but still have expectations for something, it may be a certain kind of dream, a distant place that is difficult to reach, or some seemingly simple and small change, but it is limited to the complexity of the actual situation, the unimaginable consequences are difficult to bear, and dare not practice.
Uncertainty is a part of life, face it, maybe to find the future that you really expect in your heart, to find that oasis, whether it is clear or vague, this is the far away we want to reach.
02.
The possible answer is to take the first step first
In existing psychological research, alleviating the anxiety caused by uncertainty is not as difficult as we think, and many times, the solution of the problem depends on "action".
In order to alleviate anxiety, mindfulness Based Stress Reduction copes by dismantling things into subjective and objective, finding what you can do, and after taking the first step, you will find that uncertainty will become a possible branch and choice, bringing more peace of mind and control.
An enlightening example is the experience of young writer Yang Xiao out of the confused period of his life. After resigning, his writing career has been uneven, and he has even encountered an existential crisis in his life.
Later, he decided to go back down a path. A hundred years ago, on this road, hundreds of teachers and students formed the Xiangqiandian Tour Group, and in order to avoid the war and continue their studies, they walked through the mountains of the southwest and completed a journey of 1600 kilometers - achieving the "Southwest United Congress" that will shine in the future.
Southwest United University
While walking, Yang Xiao flipped through the historical records of the students of southwest united universities in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and also visited the descendants of teachers and students who traveled that year. The past gradually became clear, and the vivid images of teachers and students buried in the dust of history jumped on the paper.
Beyond the grand saga, they have their own simple real life, hobbies and prejudices, and also need to understand and deal with the crisis of the country and the self.
Like Yang Xiao's walking opportunity, the teachers and students of Southwest United University did not have a clear goal at the time of departure, in his words: "History looks back at the road very clearly, but in the present it is all a dilemma." They don't know what the end point is, they just go down with the glimmer of idealism.
"Before cynicism and pessimism struck, the search for the truth was the reason to go to Kunming," Yang Xiao wrote in his later book" Re-Walk: Searching for southwest united nations on roads, rivers and post roads.
Through this long walk, Yang Xiao gradually "regained a sense of direction and control". At the same time, following his brushstrokes, the thoughts left by these teachers and students of Southwest United University with their own exploration and action can still bring echoes and resonance to us in confusion and difficulty a hundred years later.
At the beginning of the journey, they must not have expected their future achievements in the history of ideas and culture, but through step-by-step walking, they not only surpassed themselves, but also transcended the times, and these ideas and explorations became deep and shallow scratches, leaving traces in history.
Another story that inspires and resonates with many in 2021 is the story of "screws don't tighten." The protagonist of the story, Lu Qingsong, provides another answer to life.
In the 1990s, Lu Qingsong worked as a music teacher at Tsinghua University, but after a university reorganization, long hair and playing in bands were banned by the leaders, and some people persuaded to "bow your head, everything is easy to say". But Lu Qingsong was reluctant, and after quitting his enviable job, he worked as an orchestra conductor and tennis coach... Start an "atypical north drift life" of not buying a house and doing odd jobs for a lifetime.
It is not easy to work without making money, and many times even get a reputation. Lu Qingsong did not understand the pros and cons in his heart, he said, "I have taken many forks in the road, but I am voluntary." Although Lu Qingsong's approach has been praised by many people after being excavated by "People", it is not difficult to imagine that every step he chose to take 30 years ago was not easy for him.
Instead of following the established line created by contemporary society, Lu Qingsong said that he was just "buying time with the money he didn't earn", "Whether I use this time to play, read books, or practice the piano, this is my freedom."
The touch brought by Lu Qingsong is not only a kind of calm or resistance in the face of the extremely anxious contemporary life, but also a lifetime of physical practice to let us see that life can indeed have another possibility, and it is not necessarily necessary to rely on some kind of "success path" to walk on the possibility.
"Into the Wilderness"
Of course, what we have to do is not to completely reproduce these paths and trajectories of life. What our own cause is, we still need to find out for ourselves. The road gradually appears in constant action, and there is more than one path. But the most important thing is to take the first step firmly.
03.
The "oasis of the heart" is the ideal state that we aspire to be constantly approaching
"Dedication" is the classic discourse of the thinker Marx Weber. At the end of the 19th century, Weber was in a period of vigorous development of industry, technology and capital society, and the old unknowns and beliefs were gradually "de-enchanted", which Weber believed was a common disease brought about by "modernity".
To combat this holistic state of de-glamorization, it is precisely necessary to find one's own "cause." In his famous lecture "Scholarship as a Cause", Weber used the scholarship he was engaged in as an example to explain that "scholarship" is a kind of "career" that operates according to professional principles, and its fundamental purpose is not to pursue profits or to conform to the selection rules of academic circles, but to "recognize the interconnection between events" and "gain self-clarity".
It can be said that the cause that Weber discusses is an exposition of the "oasis" that our hearts desire.
It's just that few people can easily see the oasis, and it's not something with a standard answer. Because the oasis in the depths of the heart is obviously not a static thing that is waiting for us to pass by, it is actually an ideal state that can only be approached continuously.
Every oasis is located in the middle of a vast desert, and it is difficult to find it – but it is always necessary to painstakingly transcend the barren desert before it is possible to get closer and closer to the oasis.
The one who has spent her life completing her career and constantly searching for an oasis is a lovely old lady known as the "old grandmother of the New Wave", Agnès Varda.
As early as 60 years ago, she created the film "Cleo at Five to Seven", which is still very pioneering and profound today, with a feminist perspective that is rare at the time, Varda focuses on a female singer wrapped in the world of flowers and flowers, and uses the two hours of her life to show her confusion, fear, and final liberation and self-redefinition.
Through a light and keen observation perspective, Varda's films became important works in the history of the "New Wave" and even the world cinema. But she was not limited to this, and in the following decades of her career, she tried many new art forms - film, documentary, installation art, in order to constantly approach and express her inner most authentic and sincere thoughts.
For example, she also went to "pick up garbage" after the market, and talked deeply with these people who picked up food after the stalls, showing a fresh individual and a new way of life (documentary "The Gleaner"),She also made an interactive installation art "Flower Room" that treats children as equal conversation objects...
"Face, Village"
In the last years of his life, Varda and the artist René created the documentary Face, The Village. As they walked, they painted according to the things they encountered on their journey, at forks in the road, at abandoned houses, in barns, even on the beach where they knew they were going to have high tide—
The next day, the painting will be eroded by the sea and disappear. But they were just painting, leaving a fleeting trace, as if along with Varda's life.
In Varda's last documentary, Agnès on Varda, which she created at the age of 90, she looks back on her life's work – it is by no means a simple demonstration of achievements, she tries her best to share her creative methods, and tells everyone a lot of "finishing touches" thinking.
The documentary's final scene shows Varda sitting on the beach with Genes. The waves continue to sweep across the beach, and as the night rises, Varda's figure gradually fades into the wet fog rising on the sea, and she says, Let's end it this way, I will first disappear into the blur and leave you.
Until the end of her life, this lovely "old grandmother" was still trying new art forms. Rather than always caring too much about purpose and boundaries, letting go of a part of it to nature and the world may lead to more unexpected transcendences.
There are no limits to the process of finding an oasis. In the process of traveling, as you cross the desert again and again, you will find that you have accumulated more and more experience in the pursuit of "career", and you will become more and more comfortable.
04.
In the midst of risk, go to the "oasis of the heart"
There are many interesting things to encounter in the process of letting go of the search, but there may also be unexpected failures, how do we face potential risks and possible misdirections?
For Ma Yin, the founder of Anaya, his answer is to maintain a state of mind called "stress." In the innovative BMW iX series of short films In Search of an Oasis, he describes it as "this state of affairs that opens you up to what you can believe in, and I firmly believe that everyone has an oasis, but you have to go out and find it yourself".
Located in Changli County, Qinhuangdao, Anaya was originally a "rotten tail" project, and after Ma Yin took over it, he had to develop this "hot potato" by himself, and the operation of such a large project led to extremely tight funds and also put Ma Yin in trouble.
To revive the project, he asked himself what kind of vacation place he wanted. Why would people go to the seaside in a small northern town to buy a house? What do people need more than material possession?
In an interview with Mr. Fashion, Ma Yin said that he has been to Tokyo and Taiwan, where residents do not live a "materialistic" life, they just infiltrate a simple and textured aesthetic of life in their ordinary daily life, and the busy life seems to be "slowed down" and become comfortable and natural.
If traditional real estate projects hit the rocks, helping people to see the real needs of their hearts may be a new path, and this is leading to the oasis in people's hearts.
Things began to turn around, and the houses that could not be sold were transformed by Ma Yin into a seaside community where people could shop, drink, eat, watch literary festivals and art performances held from time to time, or just walk by the sea, go to the "loneliest library" to read books, fill the spiritual needs hidden by busyness and emptiness, and connect daily life with cultural enjoyment.