Month: November 2023

I was looking for a particular book, The Thicket, on the various bookshelves in my house. It appeared to have mysteriously vanished. I did, however, happen upon this book. I have no idea where it came from. I was about to head off on a short trip for work and wanted something to read while I was gone, so I grabbed it. It turned out to be a very interesting book about the Toltec belief system and how it can be applied to modern life. The Toltecs were an early Mexican civilization that built structures similar to the Aztecs and Mayans. Their belief is that we create our own heaven or hell and by following the four agreements, we allow ourselves to enjoy freedom, happiness, and love to build our own heaven. The four agreements are quite simple to explain and appear to be very useful. Simply stated, the four agreement are – be Impeccable in your word, always do your Best, never make Assumptions, and do not take anything Personally. I have remembered it with the acronym IBAP.

Being Impeccable in your word is pretty self-explanatory. It means that you always do what you say you are going to do, and also not agreeing to things, you have no intention of doing. I cannot imagine anyone can find find fault or controversy in this. No one likes a person that agrees to things and does not follow through. Always keeping your word will definitely help you avoid unnecessary drama in your life.

Always doing your Best is also pretty self-explanatory. The main reason for doing so, may not be. The Toltec belief is that if you have done your best at something, regardless of outcome, you will have a clear conscience. Even if you fail at a task, if you gave it your best effort, it will not haunt you. If you half-ass something, even if it works out in the end, you probably do not feel great about it. Always doing your best avoids this feeling. Your conscience will always be clear.

Never make Assumptions appears pretty obvious as well. How much time has each of us worried about something that has never come to fruition? I know that I have wasted plenty. If you do not have information regarding something, do not make assumptions. This will create needless worry. Misunderstanding is very commonplace in life. We all bring our unique viewpoints and oftentimes others view the same circumstance with radically different perceptions. Without proper information, if you are filling in gaps in knowledge with assumptions, you are creating an avenue for unnecessary worry and wasted effort.

Do not take anything Personally. This to me is somewhat similar to Never make Assumptions. Perhaps someone appears to treat you in a way that might appear that the person does not care for you. You may have no idea what is going on in this person’s life, or what kind of day this person is having. Even if this person does not, in fact, care for you, what good does it do you to take it personally? Taking something personally will only lead to internal discomfort. Perhaps make a mental note to not invest too much time with this person, but continue on with your life. Do not let this person infect you with drama that will do you no good. Perhaps you can pray for this person. Pray that this person will overcome whatever makes him behave in an unkind way. Do not allow negative interactions to burrow their way into your consciousness. This will do nothing but rob YOU of happiness.

So there they are, the four agreements in four short paragraphs. Use them as I have presented them here, or read the book an use them as you interpret them. I can find no reason not to. The last chapter of the book, in fact, shows how these agreements fit in neatly with most of the world’s religions. I believe that this book has helped bring me some peace. It is well worth the time I spent reading it.

The day I finished reading this book, I noticed The Thicket, front and center on the bookshelf in my living room. I have no idea how I did not see it earlier, but I am glad I did not. This was a fantastic read. I will start on The Thicket next.

This was a short, but fantastic novel that was translated from Portuguese. It centers on the life of a young, Spanish shepherd boy, Santiago, who is looking for meaning in life. The main theme of the book is one’s “Personal Legend”. A personal legend is fulfilling one’s life purpose. Everyone and everything has a Personal Legend, and most people recognize theirs in their youth, but discount or ignore it as they get older. Even though a Personal Legend is a path to happiness, most ignore it to pursue what is expected of them or what is easily at-hand. To quote the book, “Very few follow the path laid out to them-the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.” People often fear following their dreams, as they get older, they may even forget them. This robs them of happiness.

The book acknowledges that following one’s Personal Legend may not always be easy, “Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”  Early on the young shepherd boy pursues the difficult job of being a shepherd so that he can see the world. He learns much leading his sheep through Spain in search of food and water for his flock, but eventually feels he has reached the end of what shepherding will provide for him. He decides to sell all his sheep for money to travel to the pyramids of Egypt, where he is told he will find great treasure by a king disguised as an old commoner. He leaves Spain and makes it across the Strait of Gibralter. There he is swindled of all his money.  He strikes up a deal to work for a crystal merchant where he learns Arabic and the crystal trade. Both Santiago and the merchant benefit greatly from their working together. Santiago finds that his life is becoming comfortable, but he decides to take the money he has earned to continue on to fulfill his Personal Legend. He resumes his course toward Egypt through a most hostile desert where war is being waged. He encounters an Englishman, also a believer in Personal Legend, who teaches him about alchemy. The Englishman, who is not himself an Alchemist, wishes to find one so that he can properly learn all its secrets. Previously, he has gained knowledge of alchemy only from books. While with the Englishman, he also finds a love interest, Fatima, a sort of desert flower in an oasis, and swears to return to take her hand in marriage. She accepts his proposal, despite knowing that Santiago has a dangerous journey ahead and may never return.

In a twist of fate, on his journey through the desert, it is Santiago who encounters the alchemist and gains his guidance. Again Santiago gains and loses his wealth, but eventually finds himself at the pyramids, where a scarab beetle appears to mark the location of his treasure. He digs to the point of exhaustion, whereupon he is robbed once again by passersby recognizing his odd behavior. The robbers spare his life, but one of them reveals that he once had dreams similar to Santiago’s, but he was not foolish enough to cross continents pursuing them. The robber describes a Sycamore tree in Spain where a treasure is supposed to be buried. Santiago recognizes the location as one he had brought his sheep to early in the story. He journeys back to Spain and finds the treasure and resolves to return to Fatima with it.

 

I spent a short time working as a high school math teacher. While I was teaching, I noticed that a number of students had this book. It was required reading for a literature class. Many of the students seemed to have pretty strong opinions on the book and the eerie cover caught my attention. I remember reading the first dozen or so pages back then. It seemed interesting, but then I forgot about it. Fast-forward many years. I am trying to find something to read and I suddenly remember it. I love older books like these. They are well-vetted, so they are almost always a good read, and they are always plentiful and cheap. I think  I paid a few dollars for it. The author, William Golding was a Nobel laureate. He was also a veteran of WWII. During the war he was witness to the many atrocities of man. This book takes place shortly after this war.

I believe this book projects much of what Golding saw in the worst of human nature onto a group of young boys who are left to fend for themselves after a plane crash on an uninhabited island. The book starts a short time after the crash with a group of boys ranging in age from very young, perhaps five years old, to early teens scattered throughout the dense vegetation of the island. One of the older boys, Ralph, makes his way to a clearing by a beach and, using a found conch shell, blows on it to signal everyone to gather together. Slowly, the kids follow the sound to the beach, each emerging from different parts of the vegetation.   Things are very orderly initially. They chose Ralph as their chief and he assigns everyone roles to build shelters, gather wood, and find food. Not long after, people slowly begin to shirk responsibility.  Ralph believes, rightly so, that a fire should be maintained so that they have some chance of a passing ship finding them by seeing the smoke from what should be an uninhabited island. They begin tending the fire in shifts, but oftentimes a shift falls asleep and the fire goes out.

They build shelters, but many in the group take off to play in the water instead of work. There is also another older boy, Jack, who has taken up hunting. Jack’s hunting is initially a good thing as he becomes adept at killing the wild pigs on the island and providing meat for the group. As time goes on, however, hunting is all Jack cares about. He forgoes all other tasks and eventually sees his hunting skills as being so valuable that he should be chief. This creates a power war between himself and Ralph. Ralph is not a perfect leader, but he thinks about the well-being of the group and realizes that the fire is the key to a chance of being rescued. Jack thinks only of hunting and being in charge.  As the group slowly slips into two factions. Jack’s group becomes blood-thirsty savages, while Ralph’s group dwindles down to the very young boys and a corpulent, but intelligent older boy nicknamed “Piggy”. In the end Jack turns many of the boys into scared soldiers. He uses intimidation, beatings, and torture to control his group. Eventually, when Ralph’s group is at its weakest, Jack’s group begins to steal from Ralph’s group and attack them in their sleep.  Ralph tries to reason with Jack as he is amenable to sharing resources. The most important being fire and Piggy’s glasses, which are used to start fires. There isn’t a reason to steal, but Jack wants to steal and impose himself on the others. In the end two of the boys, Piggy and Simon, end up getting killed through Jack’s actions and has the remaining boys “hunting” Ralph.

In an effort to drive the hiding Ralph out of thick foliage, Jack and his crew ignite the entire island. Fortunately for Ralph, who appeared to have been flushed out and nearing his end, the fire has caught the attention of a passing military vessel whose crew arrives just in time to save Ralph.

The book is very well-written, as would be expected from a Nobel laureate in literature, and outside of a few phrases, is not really dated. This book would not be much different if adapted to present-day. I did find the last couple of chapters to be pretty gruesome. To me, it is borderline inappropriate to mandate its reading for high school students. It does paint a fairly grim picture of the bad side of human nature, but what probably makes it gruesome is the fact that you believe that the behaviors portrayed are quite plausible for a group of people. It only takes one person with a greedy heart and a little power to destroy a large group. Jack does not start out malevolent, but as he gains power and becomes drunk in his killing for thrill, he loses all morals. This book is a very interesting study in human nature.