[Voices of the MZ Generation][Column] You Must Meet a Truly Good Life Today

Pursuing What Is More Valuable Than Money and Honor
Finding the Gaps for Joy and Happiness in Life

Attorney and Cultural Critic Jeong Ji-woo

Ivan Ilyich, who rose to success and established himself as a judge, suffers a severe internal injury one day due to a trivial incident. Because of a wound that medicine at the time could not heal, he slowly dies as if afflicted with an incurable disease.

As he approaches death, the last thing he thinks about is ‘card playing.’ Although he had lived as an elite with excellent grades since childhood, facing death, he feels that none of it matters and recalls the moments spent playing cards. This is the story from Tolstoy’s classic novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

As we live, there are things we follow almost mechanically. Success, money, honor?these are naturally pursued, and we believe without doubt that happiness lies at the end of these pursuits. However, the moments Ivan Ilyich believed to be happiness were not the ‘destinations’ reached by chasing those things. Rather, it was the time spent with friends playing cards, laughing, and immersing themselves through the gaps and encounters along the way.

At least once in life, everyone can experience a moment where they feel, ‘I was born for this moment.’ A time when one thinks, ‘I have lived for this moment. Now I have no regrets even if I die. If only I could continue this time, I would be satisfied.’ There can be such moments filled with genuine enjoyment, love, immersion, and happiness. For Ivan Ilyich, such moments were neither when he became a judge, nor when he was promoted, nor when he moved into a big house.

These days, after opening my law practice and pursuing various things, I often think about what I truly want to do, what I can genuinely enjoy, and what I can sincerely find valuable. There is no doubt that doing well as a lawyer is important. However, I think it might be somewhat wrong to spend all the time, heart, and effort of one’s youth solely on succeeding in one social role.

Of course, it would be great to earn good money and have a stable life, but no less than that, I want to enjoy and love life. I want to create many gaps in my life where I can find joy and value. I want my life to be built with solid bricks, but about one-third of it to be holes or gaps that won’t collapse.

With the mindset of protecting those gaps from being blocked, I run to the park holding my child’s hand on weekends. I run until we are out of breath, create games, hide behind rocks, and catch bugs with my child. I also take a little time every day to write or try filming YouTube videos. Thinking about what my ‘card playing’ might be before I die, I often decide to create exactly that in my life.

A good life is not simply reduced to success like earning a lot of money. Recently, I have been thinking more than anything that I must live a ‘truly good life.’ Getting my driver’s license at twenty, stacking and reading books in my twenties, exploring the world holding my parents’ hands as a child, overcoming exam preparation in my thirties?all of these were preparations for today’s good life. Now, I must live a good life. I bet on this life today. I must now meet the life where I feel, ‘I was born for today.’

Jung Ji-woo, Lawyer and Cultural Critic

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.