You live like this, sheltered, in a
delicate world, and you believe
you are living.
Then you read a book…
or you take a trip…
and you discover that you
are not living, that you
are hibernating.
The symptoms of hibernating are
easily detectable: first, restlessness.
The second symptom (when hibernating
becomes dangerous and might
degenerate into death): absence
of pleasure.
That is all.
It appears like an innocuous illness.
Monotony, boredom, death.
Millions live like this (or die like this)
without knowing it.
They work in offices.
They drive a car.
They picnic with their families.
They raise children.
And then some shock treatment
takes place, a person, a book, a song,
and it awakens them and saves them
from death.
Some never awaken.
–by Anaïs Nin
You can find this passage in — The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
