The Winner Stands Alone

10th read of Paulo and I am impressed yet again. This one centers about the glamour world and author's interpretation of how people in this high luxury and branded world go on in their life. The story is centered around lost love of a Russian millionaire who's wife has left him some 2 years back and he chooses to get her back finally during the Cannes film festival in France putting an end to his agony and pain he has been suffering ever since she left him. At some points it feels like a psychopath story and the story's end also unusual kind as what one usually expect. The interesting part is characters portrayed and how author describes the world of each.... some already a star, some on the verge of becoming a star and some others who just want to know each and everything about the stars and then the police. The story flows in interesting fashion and midway one would find the aspects of larger society related questions writer tries to put across with the use of different characters. One could call it a mystery novel but I didn't find it very grasping as Paulo goes off track at times but nevertheless interesting. Though the interesting aspect of naming of chapters with time stamp....the story completes in a period of 24 hours.

The content common to most Coelho books are : Religion,Love, Sex, questioning what is accepted normal in society, dwelling on what we refer as happiness, love, anger, madness..and others ...give it a definition in different ways.

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A New Religion? H+

This latest read was good but somewhere down the line towards the end it feels more of a marketing mantra. 

Author suggests a new concept on thinking on religion based on the following elements:

Human

Happiness

Humour

Help

Hope

Health

The approach is clearly explained in a very simplistic fashion without use of complicated jargon. The primary emphasis is on the Positive element ..hence the name H+. To look at all the positive elements around you and to work on the positive note and not under fear of negativity. One's actions to be driven by willingness to help and not because of fear of committing a sin. The emphasis is on action and contribution to the world around you than personal purification. Many interesting concepts are introduced like Pons- meaning any positive action. It is something one is suppose to do and about which one is encouraged to feel proud of. Acts of giving money to beggars or being asked for help and helping are not counted as they are opportunities coming to a person and promoting begging may be anti-social by encouraging the act. Through conscious effort one is suppose to do good actions on daily basis.It may be as simple as helping an old lady cross the street. And I have no doubts the amount of satisfaction and good feeling after doing such simple acts having experienced myself. Need to be proactive.Another thing I found interesting was upon Ritual..... It is pointless but it helps in bringing in discipline and as an indicator of "I belong to". 

Point of disagreement:

Author emphasizes the fact that other religions focus on negativity(avoiding sins and wrongdoing) aspect mostly but I don't think so. Most religions have both positive and negative elements attached to them. Negative are more so to bring in order/discipline in society and prevent chaos. 

 

Some other notes from the book:

- H+ is a belief in the potential of yourself and in the potential of your fellow human beings

- Goodness is not just absence of badness but an active contribution

- It is not enough to be a good person.  You must be a person doing good things 

- Happiness is a matter of attention. If we get into the habit of focusing attention on negative aspects, we are likely to be unhappy. If we learn to focus on more positive aspects, we can be happier.

-Thinking is very important to happiness

-Judgement brings the past into the future. Design brings the future into the present.

-Humour is a social glue.

-Our brains like certainty. Perceptions seeks certainty. We then lock on to that certainty with rigidity , arrogance and intensity. Humour is all about the possibility of looking at things in a different way.Humour is all about changing perceptions.

-Humour builds self esteem. One is not at the mercy of the world around because one can laugh at it.

-with hope one seeks to make things better. Also learns to 'shrug' and become less hostage to the world around.

-being Cool concept came from American slave culture. As a style cool is defensive and contributes nothing.It is very ego-centric.

-Waffo meaning generous, warm and human (opposite of cool)

More info here .