English Edition | C#60 學會在忙碌中抬頭看自己的人生 | 《南柯一夢》[Read on my website] Have you ever had one of those moments where you just… zoomed out? After sharing the story of “南柯一夢” (nán kē yī mèng), a dream of Nanke. in our last episode, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. In the story, a man lives an entire, successful life inside an ant hole, only to wake up and realize it was all a fleeting dream. It made me wonder: What if the life we’re so busy chasing every day is actually a lot like that? Something that feels incredibly real while we’re in it, but might just be a shared illusion? Living here in Taiwan, life moves fast. We’re pretty much raised on a checklist: study hard, get into the right school, land that “stable” job. Then comes the next set: buy a house, save up, get married, have kids.It sounds normal… It’s the path almost everyone follows. And honestly? I used to be totally bought in. I’d get so anxious about my work performance. I’d stress out if my income didn’t feel “high enough.” I was constantly looking at others and wondering if I was falling behind. It felt like if I didn’t hit those milestones by a certain age, I was somehow… a failure.
But this story forced me to ask: Do these things really matter as much as we think? If I stretch the timeline out—ten, fifty, or a hundred years from now—will the things stressing me out today even exist? Will anyone remember the goals I’m killing myself to achieve right now? Or are they just like that man’s dream under the tree—intense and immersive, but ultimately gone in a blink? At first, that thought actually made me feel a bit uneasy. If everything is “just a dream,” then what’s the point of trying? But then I realized: Maybe the point isn’t whether it has “meaning”—it’s how we choose to see it. In the story, the world inside the dream was complete. It had a king, a career, and a family. To the dreamer, it was his whole reality. But to the rest of the world, it was just an ant colony. Could our society just be a “magnified ant colony”? Think about it. The things we value most—titles, salaries, reputation—are all things we’ve collectively decided are important. When everyone believes they matter, they become “real.” But are they absolute truths? Take owning a home. In Taiwan, it’s often seen as the ultimate symbol of security. But in other parts of the world, people prioritize freedom or quality of life instead, renting forever and feeling perfectly fine. There isn’t one “correct” way to live, even though it feels like there is. I realized a lot of my anxiety came from unconsciously living out someone else’s script. I wasn’t striving for what I wanted; I was just following the direction everyone else was pointing. So, what’s the alternative? I don’t think the answer is to quit your job or stop trying. Life goes on, and we all have responsibilities. But I think the real challenge is: Can we stay “awake” while we live this life? For me, being awake means I can work hard without letting my job define my worth. I can aim for a better life without constantly measuring myself against my neighbor. Lately, I’ve been intentionally slowing down. I watch people on my commute. I take long walks in the park. When I step out of that “must move forward” mode, things actually get a lot clearer. I’ve started to find more value in the simple stuff—a meal with family, a real conversation with a friend. In the past, I might have thought those things weren’t “productive.” Now? They feel like the only things that are actually real. “南柯一夢” (nán kē yī mèng) , a dream of Nanke, isn’t telling us to give up on life. It’s a reminder: Don’t get lost in the appearances. Life might be a dream, but that means we get to choose how we play our part. Are we chasing blindly? Or are we participating with awareness? Are we following expectations, or finding our own way? I don’t have all the answers yet. But I’m finally willing to pause and ask the questions. And maybe that’s the biggest gift this story gave me. It didn’t tell me how to live—it just reminded me to look up once in a while and check if I’m still awake. I’ll leave you with a favorite quote from Oscar Wilde: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” We can’t always change where we are, but we can always choose where we look. And sometimes, that choice changes everything. Phrase of the Week隨波逐流 (suí bō zhú liú) Meaning: To follow the crowd; to drift along without independent thinking. Examples:
2. 他不喜歡隨波逐流，總是有自己的想法。
3. 在這個競爭激烈的社會，很容易讓人隨波逐流。
4. 我開始反思，不想再隨波逐流地生活。
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