Harold, 60, retired silently after 40 years as a sales representative in a brewery. He has no promotion, no friends and no rivals. When he retired, the company didn't even hold a farewell party.
One day, he received a letter from his old colleague Queenie, whom he hadn't seen for 20 years, in which he learned that she had cancer. Harold wrote a reply. On the way to post the letter, he walked past the mailbox, but he went further and further. On the way to post the letter, he thought about his life and decided to walk to Queenie's city ... 87 days, 627 miles, only based on the belief that as long as he insisted on walking this road with his feet, his old friend would survive!
In fact, compared with the pilgrimage with religious belief, Harold's behavior is not even a "pilgrimage". A simple story and a trip to southern China are the only extraordinary things he has tried in his ordinary life. Looking at Harold from a secular perspective, "Ordinary" is actually a failure-his parents abandoned him, his only son committed suicide due to depression, and he had no friends, and his estrangement from his wife was like a stranger, day after day. "David took all the risks with his own body, as if to resist his father's ordinary."
However, from the moment he took this step, it was also his "another leap-forward trip just to visit". In this process, he accepted his parents, "let himself feel the pain that his parents didn't want him", and forgave "his parents didn't want him, didn't teach him how to love, and didn't even teach him to express. He can forgive his parents and forgive his parents. " At the same time, I accepted myself, let go of the burden in my heart, and had more contact with the world around me.
Harold met all kinds of people on his pilgrimage. The girl at the gas station gave him the initial encouragement: "You should always be positive."
"You must have faith. Anyway, that's what I think. You can't just take medicine or anything. You have to believe that that person can get better. There are too many things in people's brains that we don't understand, but think about it carefully. If you have faith, you can do things well. "
"I'm not saying ... religion or anything. I mean, accept what you don't understand, fight for it, and believe you can change something. "
Harold, with his own belief, came to the end with the encouragement of the girl at the gas station and the good people on the road. Queenie finally met this friend at the end of her life. In fact, this is also a story of "hospice care".
Harold and his wife got back together-"If we can't open our hearts, if we can't accept what we can't understand, there is really no hope." Maureen also found herself again, "trying new things every day", communicating with neighbors and moving back to Harold's room. She forgave Harold. In the twenty years after her son David committed suicide, she always blamed Harold for not fulfilling his father's responsibility, and even his son drowned. He didn't tie his shoelaces before he jumped into the sea to save his son. ...
Harold finally accepted life. He "sees people make all kinds of decisions, some of which will hurt themselves and their loved ones, some will not be noticed at all, and some will bring joy." The road ahead is still waiting for him, but he is ready. On a pilgrimage to Harold.
I still remember a psychology teacher saying that the nine most powerful ways to ease interpersonal relationships are "I'm sorry, thank you, I love you!" " "Each of us will live in peace with life.
Following Harold's pilgrimage, I once thought of Forrest Gump. In the movie Forrest Gump, there is a scene in which Forrest Gump runs on the road with a group of followers behind him. Following Harold's pilgrimage, I once felt that I would choose a journey "on the road" just to "find myself" and "meet myself better".
This is a novel full of life wisdom. Beautiful writing and environmental description make readers feel as if they are there, and "step by step" with Harold ... This is a novel worth reading and rereading. Harold, full of philosophy, was not accepted by his parents since he was a child, and his mother and son never had close contact. It was during the pilgrimage that he "learned" to be a father. In the process of reading, we will also examine and gain insight into our own lives.
This is the charm of a good book.
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Excerpts from reading notes of One Man's Pilgrimage;
The rift between two souls is irreparable.
Anyone can do what I do, but one must let go of what you can't live without.
You always do. When someone else does something you haven't done, you are in a hurry to say impossible.
You will struggle, you will be incredible, and you will be knocked down by reality again and again until you finally accept the fact and the dust settles.
How could he possibly tell you everything? These words have been accumulated all his life, and he can try to find words, but their weight in her ears can never be symmetrical with their weight in his heart.
Walking on the way to the dock, the truth cut through the darkness like a light.
When you meet a stranger, let him see the side he is not, or the side he lost a long time ago, or even become "the person you may become"-if you made different choices in those years.
He knows that he is also accepting the strangeness of strangers in this journey of making up for mistakes. Standing in the position of a passerby, not only the land under his feet, but everything else is open to him.
What he knows is completely different from what these people think they know. This discovery surprised Harold and made him feel that even if he stood in the crowd, no one really knew him. He was still alone. The flame transmits light in the dark, and laughter wafts into his ears, but it belongs to a group of strangers.
Life without love is not life.
Harold believes that his journey has really begun. He thinks it started from the moment he decided to go to Beric, but now he finds how naive he is. Some things can have several starting points or start in different ways. Sometimes you think you have started a new page, but in fact you may just repeat the previous steps.
You can say anything because you know that she will keep your words in a safe place in her heart, will not judge them, and will not raise them against him in the future. He thinks this is friendship. He suddenly regretted having avoided this friendship for so many years.
The woman looked at him happily, playing with an apple in her hand, fingering it, as if she had accidentally found something interesting. "Do you think walking is the easiest thing in the world?" She finally spoke, "but I have always been surprised at how difficult it is to do these things that were originally instinctive."
He has been walking for more than ten days, and all his energy has been spent on moving forward step by step. Now he finds that his faith is so low that his previous worries have gradually become hidden facts.
Accept what you don't understand, fight for it, and believe that you can change something.
Cherish the true feelings of words, and don't use words as ammunition.
He knows that in the journey of making up for his mistakes, he is also accepting all kinds of strangeness from strangers. Standing in the position of a passerby, not only the land under his feet, but everything else is open to him. People will speak freely and he can listen to them. He absorbed something from everyone along the way. He neglected too many things, and he owed Queenie and the little generosity in the past.
Giving and receiving are both gifts, which require both humility and courage.
When a person is alienated from the familiar life and becomes a passer-by, strange things will be given new meaning. Knowing this, it becomes more important to be true to yourself and be an honest Harold, instead of playing anyone.
It turns out that as long as you know what you are looking for, you can often pick it from your side.
It feels good to have mud under your nails. It's good to raise something else.
He can forgive his parents for not wanting himself, not teaching him how to love, or even teaching him to express himself. He can forgive his parents as well as his parents. Harold just wants his children back.
As long as she looks at him, she will be dragged back to the painful past, or it is safest to communicate in a few words. They consciously stay in the most superficial communication with each other, because under the words is an unfathomable and insurmountable gap.
Truth is like a light that penetrates the darkness. She endured these years, because no matter how lonely she is with Harold, the world without him will only be more lonely.
History is history. You can't escape your origins. Even if you wear a tie, it won't change.
He can forgive his parents for not wanting himself, not teaching him how to love, or even teaching him to express himself. He can forgive his parents as well as his parents. Harold just wants his children back.
I think about her all the time. I knew in my heart that she had gone, but I couldn't help looking around. The only change is that I'm getting used to the pain. It's like finding a big pit on the flat ground. At first, you always forget that there is a pit and keep falling into it. It's still there for a while, but you've learned to bypass it.
She is like this sometimes. It has become a habit to say something she doesn't know.
Bright eyes talk about the workplace, warm hearts talk about life Tintin ID:dsd555555