“Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed.”
― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air
- I’ve been reading Paul Kalanithi’s memoir When Breath Becomes Air this week. After certain passages I pause and take deep breaths, reading his insights and reflecting. I urge you to pick his book up today and you will understand how some people, indeed, leave the world in a better place.
Image: Sunrise, Woods and Fog in the Air by David Foster via Flickr
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
I loved this book.
I wept at the end and couldn’t contain my tears. It’s book that will linger with me for a long, long time.
I’m at about the 30% mark!
I hope to hear your thoughts on his work, Nina.
I’ll look for it. This passage is beautiful and as deep as those woods. I can see where it would be little blips reading, with the need for processing along the way.
Yes, Barb. The way you suggest reading this particular book is the approach I’d incorporate in exploring Paul’s work. Some of it is so painful, you have to sit with it and decide what it means and then process how his insight might help you in your life.
This book sounds frightening. I need to read it!
I hope you read it, Luanne. Would love to discuss with you as well – it’s beautiful, sad, gripping – and certain passages are difficult to process, but offer so much insight.
Is it the kind of book I want in hardcover rather than digital?
Definitely hardcover, Jana. I will revisit some of the passages again.
IT’S MY NEXT READ!
I hope to hear your thoughts about the book, Ayala.