One of the books I read on my break was The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera. It was a book I have been intending to read for a long time, and it sat on my shelf for months before I packed it in my suitcase. The title had mystified me, but Kundera explains his theory early in the book, and it is really quite simple.
But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?
The heaviness of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But... [t]he heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.
What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
... The only certainty is: the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, most ambiguous [question] of all.
In the context of holidays, respites are a luxury, and a wonderful way to restore energy and clarity. But I have come to the conclusion that commitments and engagements and schedules - a 9 to 5 job, children, yoga classes, family birthdays, shopping lists, weekly visits to grandparents - are just as, if not more, worthwhile. After all, to say otherwise would be discounting what makes up 95% of our lives.
