A Rather Short, Random Thought Which Barely Qualifies as a Blog Post: 30 Days of Blogging, Day 10

So today was insanely busy, with me working at a trade show from 8:00am until 7:30pm, then going to dinner with a manufacturer for 2 hours. Consequently, I don't see me coming up with something insightful on my own during the last hour and a bit of today, so I've decided to use a story which I read today during down-time at the show. The story is the introduction to the book The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho (which, by the way, is one of the best books I've ever read. It's currently one of like 3 books that I've read twice), and it's a very simple and interesting example of seeing things in a different light. Anyway, without further ado, in the words of Coelho

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

"Why do you weep?" the Goddesses asked.

"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."

"But..... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.

"Who better than you to know that?" the Goddesses said in wonder, "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!!"

The lake was silent for some time.

Finally it said:

"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.

So anyway, a very interesting story. My sincerest apologies for not being insightful or original in any way today, I will do what I can to rectify for those misdeeds tomorrow, though it should also be quite a busy day, so we'll see how that goes...