Anaïs Nin: Some Never Awaken

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.

---

You can find this passage in — The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

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