The Call of the Wild: How to Renew Yourself When Life Abandons You

You may have had a difficult time like this:

Work tremblingly and overtime every day, but still have to face the harshness of the leader and the indifference of colleagues;

As the age increases day by day, what stagnates are the savings figures and stagnant career paths.

The life in front of me is exhausting physically and mentally, and the road ahead is very uncertain.

If life abandons you, I advise you to read this “The Call of the Wild”.

The author Jack London used the experience of a dog named “Buck” to give countless confused readers soul comfort and spiritual release.

This proud and delicate pet dog was displaced overnight and became a slave dog for gold diggers.

It survived the tempering of the harsh environment, the competition of its own kind, and the tragic death of its favorite human companion, and finally became an independent and powerful beast.

“The Call of the Wild” seems to take place in a remote and extremely cold place, but many of the scenes in it can take care of our current reality.

The living environment of the weak and the strong in the book, and the bewildered and confused protagonist’s heart are all reflections of real life.

After reading this book, you will understand:

The more people are in the trough, the more they need to know how to renew themselves.

The story begins with Buck’s sudden turn of fate.

Buck was originally a pet dog of Judge Miller. He was civilized and lived in a warm valley in the southern United States.

Its fate has been smooth since its birth, like a canary raised in a cage. Although its life is good, it is also a little more boring and pale.

Until an accidental experience, Buck was abducted by a gambling servant at home, sold to a dog dealer, and became a hard labor dog in the gold rush area of ​​Alaska.

So far, Buck’s life has undergone earth-shaking changes, and the former comfort and leisure have disappeared:

It used to be the “King of Animals” in warm manors in the south, and no animal in the yard dared to violate its ideas.

Now, in order to save its own life, it has to hide under the ferocious leader dog and restrain its edge.

In order to adapt to the harsh and cruel living environment in Alaska, it put down its pride and self-esteem, and learned to entangle with all kinds of deception, cruelty and stupidity.

The wind, frost and sword are pressing hard, but what Buck feels is not only the difficulty of survival, but as the boundaries of life are gradually broken, a brand new self is gradually awakened in his body.

Heavy physical work every day makes its flaccid muscles strong and powerful.

Being in the complex and changeable natural environment for a long time has also honed its thinking more agilely.

Once strong and reckless, it has also become good at thinking and planning in the battle with the leading dog.

At this moment, Buck suddenly discovered that a brand new self had been born unconsciously, leaving the walls of the greenhouse, and its life became vast and open.

Isn’t the life of adults obeying similar laws:

Keeping a job without surprises and joys, wasting the future time in repetitive and boring days.

I have an extremely strong desire in my heart, but I dare not create new changes in action.

In fact, the future you want is brought about by a small attempt.

Try a long-awaited experience, maybe you will gain a hobby that will accompany you for a lifetime.

Or, sticking with a trivial side hustle might lead to a great one.

What really binds us is the fascination with familiarity and comfort that drives us away from wonder and interest in the strange.

Browning once said that humans should try to surpass their abilities, otherwise the existence of the sky will be meaningless.

In the process of breaking through oneself, although one will lose one’s original self, only by breaking the shackles of achievement can there be gaps in the light of hope.

As long as you keep trying, you will one day thank the self who keeps breaking through.

Buck’s second masters were the stupid Hal family, a family of three with a pack of dogs chasing the gold rush, all the way from the United States to Canada looking for opportunities to make a fortune.

These three people can be said to be headstrong to the extreme. They have neither experience in surviving in the wild nor are they willing to learn.

When well-meaning local citizens advise them to ditch their tents, they take it seriously.

As for how much food the team needs to prepare in advance on the ice sheet, they did not investigate in advance, so that the dogs were starved and cold.

Even when the ice was about to thaw, the dogs were forced to drag the heavy sleds on the road.

In the end their stupidity was rewarded – buried in the icy rivers of the north.

Buck was deeply shaken by the destruction of the Hal family. In the harsh winds of Alaska, the chances of survival are as thin as the heat here, and anyone who is too lazy to study will be severely punished.

Only by constantly learning and updating one’s cognition can one be able to cope with any possible challenges in a complex and ever-changing environment.

Realizing this, Buck restrained his laziness and arrogance as a pet dog in time, and began to absorb any knowledge he could get his hands on in the new environment.

Lacking the skills to survive in the wild, it silently observed the behavior of other animals and learned to hunt, make dog holes, and pull sleds.

When it decides to compete for the position of the leader dog, it will continue to learn how to get along with other companions in the team, win people’s hearts, and enhance its prestige.

In this way, Buck keeps learning and changing, patiently waiting, keeping a low profile, and accumulating strength to ensure that he can survive.

Relying on constantly updating himself, Buck gradually became the strongest and leader of the dog pack, using his absolute power to gain status and glory for himself.

The famous scientist Qian Weichang once said: “Learning is a lifelong career. On the road of learning, whoever wants to stop will fall behind.”

In the current world, the economy is in a downward trend, and jobs are likely to be replaced by AI… The world we are facing is not much gentler than Buck’s environment.

And maintaining lifelong learning is the best way to keep yourself in the ever-changing world.

Only by constantly learning lessons from setbacks can we update and iterate our best self from external feedback, and gain the strength to climb upwards from learning.

Buck once had a master who was a judge, who gave Buck a carefree material life.

Later, Buck was abducted by dog ​​dealers and never saw the judge again.

Buck was once again sold to the Hal family, who had no experience in wild life, and spent a nightmarish period of time under their stupid ruthlessness.

The Hal family was buried in the wilderness and still left Buck.

Finally, Buck met his most beloved owner, John Thornton, who was different from any previous owner of Buck. John really liked and loved Buck.

His appearance seemed to ignite a flame in Buck’s already frozen heart. They accompanied each other and had an unforgettable happy time.

But John was unfortunately shot dead by the Indians in the end. Although they loved each other deeply, they had to live and die apart, leaving Buck alone in the end.

Buck’s master and partner changed one after another, but in the end he still faced the dark and cold life of hard labor alone.

Loneliness is like a curse that cannot be broken, entangled with Buck like a nightmare, no matter whether his partner is an enemy or a true love, they will leave it in some way.

It was in this heart-wrenching loneliness that Buck’s heart gradually became clear.

No matter how many times it returns to human society as a partner, it cannot obtain eternal companionship, and no one should be with anyone forever.

The dangers and challenges in the wilderness must be resolved by one’s own wisdom.

John is Buck’s true love, it can die for John, but it cannot live as a human appendage.

In the past, Buck was either a “noble family dog” as a human being, or a hard labor dog that helped humans pull sleds.

And to pursue independent spiritual growth, Buck must give up any identity defined by human beings.

Buck no longer has illusions about the company of others, and he no longer seeks his place in the social group of human society.

Instead, he turned around and ran into the wilderness, becoming a truly free soul.

There is a sentence in “In the Fog”: “Life is very lonely. No one can understand another, and everyone is lonely.”

Indeed, life is lonely, and no one can accompany another for a long time.

All relationships in life are just temporary companionship.

An important sign of a person’s maturity is to clearly know that everyone will say goodbye one day, and the only person who can accompany you on the journey is yourself.

Therefore, no matter how persistent the attempt to get rid of loneliness, it is ultimately a futile effort.

Instead of resisting loneliness and trying to find boring excitement, it is better to actively accept loneliness.

Find the real self in loneliness, perfect the real self, and bloom unique flowers in the doomed regret.

Hermann Hesse once said:

Everyone goes through this dilemma, and it’s often a pivotal moment in a person’s life.

At this critical point, the individual’s life needs and the surrounding environment have the most intense conflicts, and the most severe challenges must be experienced in order to find the way forward.

Life will not always be a color, it is not as gorgeous and colorful as we expect, but it is not as ugly as we fear.

It may be temporarily dim, but one day it will glow with a different color.

No matter what situation we are in, we must be like green pines in the ice and snow, bravely break through the shackles, grow tall and proud, and pursue the never-ending journey.