Page 123, 4, 5,6,7,8, and 9 and then 10

I got this idea from Blanking on Tuesday. Here is a modified version. And hey, we haven’t done tags in a long time anyways. (Mental note, find out the difference between a meme and a tag)

Pick up the book closest to you. (OK, you can cheat, pick up the book closest to you that you like; but that’s about it – no more cheating). Go to page 123. Go to the end of the fourth sentence (not line). Write the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth sentences in your post. Follow it up with ten words or ten sentences about what that sentence means to you – then and there. Spontaneous!

I picked up The Zahir, by Paulo Coelho (after cheating on Eleven Minutes). The fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth sentences on Page 123 were:

If there is joy, then it’s best to accept that too, even though you are afraid it might end one day. Some people can only relate to life through sacrifice and renunciation. Some people can only feel part of humanity when they think they are “happy”. But why all these questions?

‘Because I’m in love and I’m afraid of suffering.’

My ten cents…er…sentences.

While I have appreciated this book a lot, this part, in isolation just seems defeatist to me. The book hasn’t had a ‘life-enhancing impact’ on me and obviously I am not one of those millions, however, I have great respect for the concept behind this story. Somehow or the other, love and suffering are always the conjoined twins. I have always wondered why – and therefore I call the five sentences above defeatist. The third sentence seems to indicate that we have a limited ability to experience happiness even if it is outside of us. I disagree. We always feel the happiness; more often than not, we choose not to experience and enjoy it. We are too caught up in our own beliefs and definitions of happiness – which (again) more often than not, are about how we feel. A gentleman, who couldn’t dance because of physical limitations, once told me that he could enjoy, even when he watched people dance; which I thought then, was too self-patronising. I think I know better now.

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I can’t think of a tag (meme?) without tagging people (only, I don’t follow-up as much now, so do relax a bit) and therefore here goes[UPDATE: I’ll insert links when the tags are completed]:

Aalapana @ Another New Day
Abhijeet @ The Fight Club
Amit @ A Fine Balance
Aquamarine @ The World is your Cave
Bishwanath @ On the Ganga Mail
Cynnocent @ Cynnocence
Educatedunemployed @ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Explorer @ Naandi
Ganga @ Dextrous Doings
Neo @ My Space
Prashant @ Whisper
Rita @ The City of Joy
Shankari @ I Think Therefore I Am
Sharmishta @ Penniless Thoughts
Sophie @ Courage My Love
Soumyadip @ Cutting the Chai
Tell me no more @ Tell me no more of enchanted days

Lots of stuff for me to read; I can take it blog-easy for a while.