Daily Archive for February 1st, 2008

Quote of the Day

We need to forget what we think we are, so that we can really become what we are.

Daily Message

On rhythm and the road
 
‘There was something you didn’t mention in your talk about the Road to Santiago,’ said a pilgrim as we were leaving the Casa de Galicia, in Madrid, where I had given a lecture only minutes before.
 
I’m sure there were many things I didn’t mention, since my intention had been merely to share something of my own experience. Nevertheless, I invited her for a cup of coffee, intrigued to know what this important omission was.
 
And Begoña - for that is her name - said:
 
‘I’ve noticed that most pilgrims, whether on the Road to Santiago or on any of life’s paths, always try to follow the rhythm set by others.
 
At the start of my pilgrimage, I tried to keep up with my group, but I got tired. I was demanding too much of my body. I was tense all the time and I ended up straining the tendons in my left foot. I couldn’t walk for two days, and I realised that I would only reach Santiago if I obeyed my own rhythm.
 
I took longer than the others to get there, and for long stretches I often had to walk alone, but it was only by respecting my own rhythm that I managed to complete the journey. Ever since then, I have applied this to everything I do in life: I follow my own rhythm.’

Today’s Question by Aart Hilal

You are the living proof that the written word is not dead in this age of the Internet and beyond. But, will the written word ever die? Is there any need for us to fear for its demise?
 
When I became an author in the late eighties, before the Internet boom, many people said that the written word was dead. Specially being a Brazilian author, I heard constantly that it was useless to become a writer since the language of literature was now English.
 
When Internet was implemented during the nineties, it stimulated people to read and write once more. This illustrates the idea that when people predict something usually it’s the opposite that happens.

YouTube Reporter am DLD 2008: Paulo Coelho

Question of the Week

Dear Readers,
 
Recently I stumbled upon a question from a reader that intrigued me : are we prisoners of the past?
Please give me your thoughts on that.
 
Love,
Paulo

Top authors join Amnesty project

Thirty of the world’s most acclaimed authors are to write new works in support of Amnesty International.
 
Tom Stoppard, Paulo Coelho, JM Coetzee, Jeanette Winterson and Nadine Gordimer are among those taking part in the Blood Like Water project, which marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 
Six books, each containing five original works, will be published in August.
 
Each writer will contribute a story “as a literary testament to the ideal that an attack on human rights anywhere is an attack on humanity everywhere”.
 
The authors will be provided with first-hand interviews, news reports, photographs and video footage of human rights abuses.
 
Iain Banks, David Mitchelle, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, DBC Pierre, Colm Toibin, Kate Atkinson and Marina Lewycka are also involved.
 
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: “From the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the newspaper article that inspired Amnesty International and the countless letters written on behalf of prisoners of conscience ever since, the written word has played a powerful part in promoting and defending human rights.
 
“That so many of the world’s best-known writers should put their pens to paper on our behalf is thrilling and has enormous potential to spread Amnesty International’s vital message still further.”
 
From : The Press Association