The dramatics are often unbelievably soft

Posted on by Live & Learn

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In truth, the dramatics of a life-determining experience are often unbelievably soft. It has so little akin to the bang, the flash, or the volcanic eruption that, at the moment it is made, the experience is often not even noticed. When it deploys its revolutionary effect and plunges a life into a brand-new light giving it a brand-new melody, it does that silently and in this wonderful silence resides its special nobility.

~ Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon: A Novel

 

Image Credit: Pino Stranieri.  Quote Source: Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon on Amazon.

31 thoughts on “The dramatics are often unbelievably soft”

    1. John, yet more cosmic alignment between us. I saw the movie (it was ok to good range) and decided to pick up the book after listening to several of the lines in the script. Glad I did. Remarkable. Here’s another one of my favorite passages:

      Who could in all seriousness want to be immortal? Who would like to live for all eternity? How boring and stale it must be to know that what happens today, this month, this year, doesn’t matter: endless more days, months, years will come. Endless, literally. If that was how it was, would anything count? We would no longer need to calculate time, nothing could be missed, we wouldn’t have to rush. It would be the same if we did something today or tomorrow , all the same. A million omissions would become nothing before eternity, and it would make no sense to regret something for there would always be time to make up for it. Nor could we live for the day, for this happiness lives on the awareness of passing time, the idler is an adventurer in the face of death, a crusader against the dictate of haste. When there is always and everywhere time for all and everything: How should there still be room for the joy of wasting time?

      ~ Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon: A Novel

      1. The ultimate paradox…living life fully only with the reality that it is finite. This is the stuff of which my panic attacks are made (albeit far far more beautifully wrought).

          1. You’re kidding of course – I keep telling you, two sides of the same coin (figuratively speaking). 😉

  7. Such beautiful lines, these!
    I’m making a mental note to pick up the book once I can.. 🙂

    Thank you once again for this lovely share, for dropping by my site with your kindness and for following, too. Do take care and stay precious.

  9. Reblogged this on View Pacific and commented:
    Here’s another reason for us to stay mindful with hearts open.
    The big life messages aren’t usually spelled out clearly in the clouds or the fabled writing on the wall. Instead, our life-shift may come after a glance from a friend, a seemingly random word or two, or a dance with a stranger. I’ve tried to get past my bad habits with conscious effort, only to find that my best changes come very differently: through subtle shifts where the past is simply left behind.
    Let’s stay awake and alive, friends, and not miss a sweet moment.

  10. Yes, important to live in the moment so as not to miss the softly spoken, subtle momentous events. I am going to read that book.

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