On the night that the Second World war was declared, there were crowds in the street. It was a summer's night and there was a blackout. On every side you heard people crying: 'Look at the moon!' The moon had been there every minute of their lives and they'd never seen it.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the human tendency to overlook beauty in everyday life until faced with significant events.
Laurens Van Der Post's quote highlights the profound realization that during moments of crisis or change, individuals often become aware of the beauty and wonder that exists in their environment, such as the moon which is usually taken for granted. The declaration of war, a moment of darkness, led people to notice and appreciate something they had always overlooked, suggesting that significant events can awaken our senses and prompt us to see the world anew.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to emphasize the importance of appreciating the small things in life.
The realities of the world affected me as visions, and as visions only, while the wild ideas of the land of dreams became, in turn,—not the material of my every-day existence--but in very deed that existence utterly and solely in itself.
A dream has power to poison sleep.
When individuals and nations have once got in their heads the abstract concept of full-blown liberty, there is nothing like it in its uncontrollable strength.
Your past is just a story. And once you realize this it has no power over you.
…but there they lay, sprawled across the field, craved far more by the vultures than by wives.
The moon had risen behind him, the color of a shark's underbelly. It lit the ruined walls, and the skin of his arms and hands, with its sickly light, making him long for a mirror in which to study his face. Surely he'd be able to see the bones beneath the meat; the skull gleaming the way his teeth gleamed when he smiled. After all, wasn't that what a smile said? Hello, world, this is the way I'll look when the wet parts are rotted.
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