Two different books with one theme

I couldn't begin to number the books with the theme of life as a pilgrimage. So I'll share but two with you--slim books under 200 pages, well-written, quick reads that take very different paths to a common theme: If you want to mine the most from your earthly journey, listen with your heart and to your heart and live in the present.

I thought of reviewing Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom on this site after seeing it in a list of terra shield's favorite books on Terra's Secret Backup Blog and thought, Surely everyone's read that book, right? No need to give it more attention here.

Then I finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, an epic fable-- if there is such a thing--that has the unique quality of being a fictional self-help book. The Alchemist imparts valuable lessons about how to live in the same way the Morrie does. They just approach the same task differently.

The Alchemist is full of wisdom and optimism. It's strikingly optimistic. From the beginning of the novel, adults with influence keep telling a humble but worthy Spanish shepherd boy that "when a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."

What a fanciful notion, some of us might think, especially if the vagaries of modern life have all but beaten our dreams out of us! But the boy believes it, not because he is gullible but because he is special. He clings to it in the face of life-and-death situations, and his dreams come to fruition for him. The stuff of fiction, yes. But such cockeyed optimism undergirds Albom's nonfiction work as well.

"People are only mean when they are threatened," Morrie tells Mitch, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease, and imparts this to Mitch as ALS is ravaging his body.

During their fifth Tuesday together, Morrie reminds Mitch of the poet Auden's quote: "Love each other or perish." He then tells Mitch, "Without love, we are birds with broken wings."

The Alchemist is chock full of inspirational thoughts as well. In Cueolo's book these inspired musings often they are imparted by coincidental strangers the boy meets on his pilgrimage to the Great Pyramids.

Having reached an oasis in the desert, the alchemist asks whether, "God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees," all the while knowing the answer. Later he tells the boy, "It's not what enters men's mouths that is evil," referring to the Islamic prohibition of alcohol. "It's what comes out of their mouths that is."

When the boy tells the alchemist his heart is agitated, that "it has its dreams and it gets emotional," the alchemist says, "That's good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say."

Which sounds an awful lot like my therapist encouraging me when my heart was agitated not too long ago in saying, "At least you put your feelings out there. Being a person of feeling and sharing your feelings are brave things and not everyone can do them. You're a better person for having made yourself vulnerable."

A philosophy which resonates with Morrie's explaining to Mitch about the value of throwing yourself into your emotions: "By allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head, you experience them fully and completely, you learn what pain is. You learn what love is."

Both books take on the subject of death, and the terror is strikes in people's hearts at that moment they realize they are mortal and that they may die. In The Alchemist, the boy faces a life or death challenge, the alchemist tells him, "You may die in the midst of realizing your [personal dream.] That's better than dying like millions who never knew what their personal dreams were." He then tells the boy he's in a better place in his life pilgrimage for having faced death saying, "Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives."

That's a message you'll hear in Tuesdays with Morrie, too, like when Morrie tells Mitch, "When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."

Some people may prefer learning life's most important lessons through the medium of Albom's memoir, told in easy and journal-esey prose. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie. It was nothing short of a spiritual experience for me. I never felt such love and kindness towards others after reading any other work, not even after reading Scripture, if I'm being totally honest.

But I loved Cuelho's literary prose, too. His gift for storytelling and creating another world many of us may never see--Southern Spain across the Mediterranean and into Egypt.

Either book is easily read in two hours' time. Both can impact your life, too, if your heart is willing to listen.

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