The Secret of Alchemy

For the last year or so, my mother has been trying to get me to The Secret, which I have steadfastly refused to do. I am not very big on inspirational fare and do not quite buy into the idea of authors repacking philosophical ideas in the name of profit. A couple of weeks back, we had a lengthy conversation about why people read these types of books, and my position weakened a bit. This is not to say that I will pick up The Secret tomorrow, but I figured that there must be something to the genre if it is so successful. Well, last week I was browsing a bookshelf in my classroom and came across such a book titled The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. After reading the jacket, I decided to give it a whirl to see if I would be “inspired.”

The Alchemist is the story of a young man, Santiago, in pursuit of his “Personal Legend.” A Personal Legend is the idea that everyone has a preordained mission that will guide him or her through life. Not everyone will come to realize their Personal Legend, but Santiago is told about his Personal Legend by an old wise king and a gypsy. These chance occurrences persuade the young man to sell his herd of sheep and pursue his Personal Legend. Mixed in with this journey are important lessons that teach Santiago the meaning of life. The book itself ended up being relatively harmless, but I am still not sold on the impact of the inspirational novel. Now, I understand that certain people will look at this as a very heartless view from a hardened individual, but hear me out.

As most people know, I witnessed my brother get hit by a car when I was eleven years old, and he came within an inch of losing his life. This incident is the single most important event in my life. I will not go into all the details (if you are interested, just give me a call sometime), but the domino effect that followed made me the person that I am today. I totally understand that not every has an event like that to draw inspiration from, but I find it hard to believe that true life does not give people to opportunity to rise up. I know that sounds cheesy, but I feel that “inspirational” writers often times poach on people that may not have the strength to realize that they are victims of a multi-billion dollar industry. Once again, I know this makes me sound like some kind of jaded individual, but I truly believe that inspiration lies in the world around us, not in some gift wrapped special edition version of the latest fade.