thoughts and reflections after a first read-through

i wrote down a few thoughts after finishing the last few pages of the Alchemist yesterday.  i won't comment on the story, so if you haven't finished it yet, i shouldn't be spoiling anything.  i wanted to comment on a few major themes that i picked up on as i was reading the last few pages:

1) trusting and not trusting others.  the boy crosses paths with many people in his travels.  he seems to be a very trusting boy, and for the most part this serves him well.  however, there are people in our lives who present themselves as trustworthy, and then when we least expect it, they pull some kind of sh*t on us and take advantage of us.  it's so hard to know when we should trust someone, when it is okay, or when we will be hurt by another after initially trusting them.  if we trust them, we may lose material wealth, we may get our heart broken, or we may choose an entirely different path in life after they have influenced us.  do we risk trusting them?  i think so.  it's the only way we can learn from the situation, whether for good or for bad.  if we never put ourselves out there, we will never learn and grow from our experiences.

2) surviving without material wealth.  this happens several times in the story to the boy.  he starts out without a lot--just a heard of sheep.  he sells his sheep and gets a bag of gold, which is taken from him.  he works hard for more gold and goes out into the desert and again loses his money to others several times.  but the thing is, he always survives.  he has money, it is taken away from him, and he survives anyway:  through his own hard work or the graciousness of others.  my question is:  if and when he does find the treasure, will it have as much meaning for him in the end as he thought it might, even after all of his experiences, and after experiencing true love?  my guess is that the treasure will not have as much meaning in the end.  my guess is that he will share it with others and help others through their own personal journeys, just as others helped him on his journey.

3) there is something much larger than us that speaks in omens and we will never understand.  it's the way of the world--you just can't control everything around you.  the boy finds out that he can't control his circumstances and situations, no matter how hard he tries.  he has to have faith.  faith in the fact that he will persevere, faith in the fact that everything will work out no matter how dire it may appear, faith that others will help him along on his journey.  he looks within himself to what his heart says, and he looks outside of himself to the omens and what they say to him.  i think only by truly looking within himself and what he feels in his heart, is he able to see what the omens speak to him and will allow for him to do.

4) love will never keep a man from realizing his own Personal Legend.  this speaks volumes to me.  no matter what relationship i've been in, whether i thought it was true love or not, i always gave up something of myself in order to keep that relationship.  the older i get, the more unwilling i am for this to happen.  i want to find true love, but i don't want to give up my own dreams to get there.  i want to find someone who loves in me and my dreams equally as they do in their own.  i want to find love that will allow me to help someone else realize their own dreams too.  the boy looks as though he gives up his love to go on his journey (several times)--he gives up the shop girl, he gives up his sheep, he gives up the girl in the desert oasis village.  giving up love to go on your own journey looks painful at first, but if it is true love, it will be waiting for you in the end when you come back from your journey.

The Alchemist

Special thanks to google images.com for photo

Our first book in our book club is The Alchemist.  One of my personal favorite books, it is basically the story of my life.  I absolutely love this book and would love to hear any comments or thoughts on it.

Book Club

I decided to start a book club so that I can read books with friends and then have intelligent (hopefully) convo's after regarding the books.  I also wanted to expand my book list.  I absolutely love to read and thought there would be no better way to hear about great new reads than to start a book club.  Here goes!