Bertrand

"LIVING" IS AN ENOURMOUS VERB

A film created for the 2022 Christmas campaign of the renowned Portuguese bookstore Bertrand Livreiros. "Living is an enormous, endless verb." — José Luís Peixoto, Abraço (Quetzal, 2011).

People are living longer than ever before: 50% of the children born in Portugal this year are expected to live beyond the age of 100. This is a reason to celebrate—a remarkable achievement in humanity's progress against premature mortality. Yet it also invites us to reflect on what this means. Life is not, and should never be, a long wait for death.

What will we do with the years that lie ahead? Perhaps we should continue asking one another, throughout our entire lives: What do you want to be when you grow up? Because life is a wonderful and continuous process of growth—one in which we never stop discovering, learning, and becoming who we are.