Paulo Coelho

Stories & Reflections

Today’s Question by Pedro

Author: Paulo Coelho

As a Messenger of Peace for the UN, and UNESCO special counselor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences”, how do envision your role in today’s world.

I think that it is everyone’s responsibility to be involved in one’s community. I’ve always been very skeptical about people that say: “I want to save the world, help others…” This is because to save the “world” is a Sisyphus project – too abstract to actually be put into practice. What is possible – and the most difficult task – is to first look at oneself and try to identify what’s wrong. Before searching for the other, one has to find oneself.

Being a messenger of peace is like being a reminder of something that defies power, something that runs deep inside all men’s soul. Peace, as well as justice, has a natural authority that given enough time and enough space, imposes itself. The challenge lies in the fact that too often we let our better judgment get crushed by too much fear, by too many scars.

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