A few days ago, while watching the movie "Fight Club," I came across a quote:
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
Upon careful consideration, both the premise and the result are idealistic. We cannot abandon everything, let alone achieve freedom. I didn't quite understand this quote until one day while taking a shower, I recalled something that happened ten years ago.
I registered for QQ in 2010. QQ was quite popular at that time. Some people were eager to quickly increase their QQ level, while others decorated their QQ profiles with unique styles. There were even people who delved into transparent skins and other similar things. I was interested in all of this, and QQ seemed important to me. One day, I accidentally discovered that I couldn't log in. I suspected that my QQ account had been stolen, and I tried everything to recover it, but to no avail. I felt inexplicably sad because there were many things on QQ that I considered important, such as the game "Luoke Kingdom" that I had played for a long time, my QQ friends, and the QQ level that I had worked hard to increase. Although I was prepared to create a new account, I always felt like something was missing. Fortunately, it turned out that I had simply forgotten my password, and I am still using QQ to this day.
At that time, was my QQ account a form of bondage for me? If I didn't have it, perhaps I wouldn't have been sad for so long or felt upset about those virtual things like games and levels. In a sense, I couldn't abandon them. Even now, if I were to cancel my QQ account, it wouldn't matter.
People always need to let go of certain things. The more we carry, the more difficult it is to move forward. The ideal state is to be carefree and completely free, but reality cannot give us absolute freedom. We cannot abandon everything; we have many attachments and constraints. We can only gradually approach this ideal state step by step.
People often talk about "断舍离" (letting go), cutting off and abandoning unnecessary, inappropriate, and outdated things, and severing our attachment to them. Only after "断舍离" can we live a simple and refreshing life. However, very few people can truly achieve this.
I look at the apps installed on my phone, there are hundreds of them, but in reality, I only use a few social media apps like WeChat and Weibo, as well as a few apps related to studying and work. But why do I still have so many installed? It's because we don't know when we'll use them next. Instead of installing them later, we prefer to keep them on our phones. We cannot practice "断舍离" with the apps on our phones, let alone other things.
It's important to empty our minds appropriately, let go of what needs to be let go, and cherish the people and things that are worth keeping. Even if we can't abandon everything, we can still have the freedom to choose.