Coelho.. Part 1

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The other day, I read the first few chapters of Coelho’s Alchemist. A short and well-paced book by most standards, it's interesting how the protagonist is apparently a simple-minded soul, but the things the author puts across are more than he would seem to be capable of articulating. The wandering-writing style adopted by him performs the usual function that most cult-writing does. [Uh, which is to appeal to a smaller audience, but probably with a greater impact.]

While I am certainly not qualified to criticize his work [having not finished the book in the first case], I find that I did like some of the things he mentioned. He said, [in different words], that every person has a calling: A certain idea of what sort of… achievement would make them happy; but that there’s a certain mysterious… force [?] that constantly clouds that desire with doubts, fears, and a certain apprehensive intuition that they cannot achieve those things.

While this could easily be interpreted as a simple lack of confidence, I think that there’s more to it. I think that the reason people don’t step out of their shell and really explore their “calling” is because of… well... several reasons. One of them is the availability of comfortable alternatives. Most parents, only out of innocent protectiveness over their “children”, discourage following of the path less-trod. So either parents do not want… us [?] exposed to the harshness that way-lays us down that path, or they have just not ripped down that way and felt the thrill of answering that call.

So where does this ambition thingy come from? Well, to bring it into perspective, I think ambition is misunderstood. Most people experience something they enjoy doing, and decide to devote a portion of their life doing that. What deserves respect is the decision they make/made: a decision which strongly shapes their future… a decision like marriage or a career choice. Well, people change careers, and… wives/husbands for that matter too, right?! So is ambition stable?

I actually know people who seem to have been born with an ambition printed on their foreheads. However, most of my friends and me were born with a slightly different genetic make-up, and do not have the above-mentioned governing protocol imbibed in our systems. While we popularly refer to ourselves as loafers, that is not to say that we consider ourselves useless. We’re more than capable of intelligent action. Sure, we’ve found things that we like, but do we like it enough? Perhaps we’re more careful, or scared, perhaps we were more protected as children. The kind who might worry more than others, or take longer to get into a relationship, or be less likely to run to a theatre, 10 minutes before the show and ticket-less.

[Continued on the next blog...]
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