//December 06, 2010//

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The Alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned.

At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

“Why do you weep?” the Goddesses asked.
“I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.
“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”
“But….. was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.
“Who better than you to know that?” the Goddesses said in wonder, “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”

The lake was silent for some time.

Finally it said:
“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”

“What a lovely story,” the Alchemist thought.

( Prologue of “The Alchemist”, celebrating this last week THREE YEARS in the New York Times Bestselling list.)

This is my second time reading the story although I already read The Alchemist for couple of times. The first one was my first time reading The Alchemist, the book was my friend’s and unfortunately my copy of The Alchemist doesn’t contain the prologue (the Indonesian version of The Alchemist was re-published by another book publisher company). And yeah, it’s kinda felt incomplete for the rest of the story.

//December 05, 2010//

Lapangan kerja makin sedikit, budak uang semakin banyak. Giliran ingin membuka lapangan kerja baru, tidak pernah ada yang percaya bahwa hal tersebut bisa terjadi. Harus punya backingan orang kayalah, harus kerja keraslah. Semua pekerjaan juga butuh kerja keras. Tapi angguk-angguk saja dengarnya, memang jadi orang biasa itu butuh kerja keras. Kerja keras untuk meyakinkan orang lain bahwa pada dasarnya semua orang itu biasa. Jadi luar biasa itu proses bukan bakat. Yah kalau ada yang bilang bakat, silahkan ucapkan Alhamdulillah karena Anda diberi berkah.