Paulo Coelho

Dear Paulo, in the beginning of Brida, there is a distinction between those who cultivate and those who build.

Does this represent a distinction between those who are linked to material things (builders), and those who are linked to spiritual things (farmers, those who cultivate)?

You can certainly apply the metaphor in the way you do.

For my part, I believe that you can also have builders and creators in the material or spiritual planes. For instance, we have dogmatic people in the spiritual plane and they tend to turn faith into something that forces others to act in a certain way. You can also have farmers in the material plane: take for instance all these webmasters that constantly shape the net without asking anything in return.

For me then the distinction is more precisely between those that are able to adapt themselves to others and the situations at hand, and those who are incapable of changing their perception.