I spend most of the weekend sleeping with the weather perfectly suited to just snuggling in bed under a blanket with lots of pillows to keep company. I would wake up after a short nap, some three hours or so then go around the house and do some stuff like eat and use the bathroom and then go back to bed. In a few short minutes, I'd be sound asleep again. I found the exercise refreshing. Sleeplessness has been plaguing me for the last couple of weeks and my body managed to find the right moment to force me down, the weather cooperating.
Saturday was all sleep with some chat with friends, a few TV time. Sunday was another story. A person can only sleep so much after all. I spent a lot of time watching TV and finally getting around to reading the whole of Ecclesiastes and The Alchemist. It has been years since I started reading both but I guess we get to do somethings when we are reading to do it.
Now, Ecclesiastes is famous for the poem which begins with "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." Personally, I love it because the entire book begins with verses, "The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'"
As you know, I was a teacher and one of my regrets was that I was not able to quote this passage at the start of the class. It would have put everything I taught them and everything they learned in perspective.
The Alchemist on the other hand is famous for the quote, "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it." It's essentially a fable on positive-thinking, fictional version of the book and DVD, The Secret. This one I have not had the chance to read or watch.
In any case, I found several complementary themes between the message of Ecclesiastes and The Alchemist. Both books by and large are telling you to live your life to the fullest, achieve your dreams, if you can but enjoy the ride if you cannot.
Ecclesiastes repeats the theme of enjoying one's self. "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil." This is rephrased throughout the book, presented again and again, telling the reader to be enjoy himself for there is nothing else in to do. In context, this enjoyment is presented as a gift of God. It asks, "Apart from [God], who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"
All men will die, the book says, whatever you do, whoever you are. We all return to the same dust that we came from. It is only fitting that you should enjoy yourself while you can. In the end, "time and chance happen to [us] all."
On the other hand, The Alchemists, counsels the reader to do what he want to do for that is his life purpose. Everything will fall into place if and when he does it. The book calls it one's Personal Legend, something one must fulfill. This presents enjoying life as living out whatever one's heart truly desires. Living one's life in pursuit of that dream is living life where "every second... is an encounter with God." Again, the summit of all these is God Himself.
Now, in Ecclesiastes, life is presented as something rather bleak, rather unfair."[T]here are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous." Things just happen to you regardless of what you do.
As for The Alchemist, it does not say that the realization of the dream will be easy. "[B]efore a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. That's the point at which most people give up." The journey is not all easy after all, but reward awaits the persevering.
In a way, this is a partial answer to the problem posed by Ecclesiastes. All things are tested and in the end, we may only get so much out of life, we might as well enjoy it while we can. We can try to persevere until the end but well, shit happens. Things don't go our own way and we have to let go.
Ultimately, Ecclesiastes puts an emphasis on the inevitable demise of man and his judgment by God. While it advises people to live their lives as they please, it cautions "know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment." In this way, it diverges from The Alchemist which focuses on the fulfillment of one's dreams or the attempt thereof while one still lives.
I guess, what I got from reading both books is that I must do whatever I can to fulfill my dreams but in the end, it's what comes after that matters. All my dreams should be aligned to that.
