The power of ‘By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept’

My professor was right. We can never live in a world without books. Can you imagine a world without books or any written material at all? I would not have written this article were it not for the inspiring work of Paulo Coelho.

Books can bring us to places we can never afford to set foot on. With their power to change people, they broaden our understanding of the world. Books can possess our thoughts and move us to action. As the cliché goes, "The books you read speak of yourself." Indeed, they tell something about our personality. If you don’t have the habit of sitting down and holding something to read, you are losing a big portion of your life.

"All we need is love." I always remember this thought from the movie I Am Sam. Love, indeed, is all that matters in life. It gives meaning and essence to our lives. Without it, our life would be empty because it is through the act of loving that we find happiness and fulfillment.

This is what By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho is all about. My first encounter with the author came when my zest for self-help books ceased. The bookworm in me was awakened after reading The Alchemist, one of the bestselling books of Coelho, which urged me to get hold of this profound story By the River Piedra. The story revolves around a small village in the French Pyrenees where the River Piedra is. Pilar, one of the main characters, tells the story of her love for her childhood friend. The childhood friend’s name is never mentioned in the story but his being a seminarian was enough to make the journey of their love more dramatic and enticing for me because I, too, am a seminarian. Pilar and the seminarian live as childhood friends as well as adolescent lovers. They are inseparable until it’s time for them to follow their own dreams in life. The seminarian leaves their town, wishing to learn more about the world. Pilar, on the other hand, stays to give herself to the conventions of the world.

What transpires between the years of separation is an exchange of letters, both of them unmindful of the things they used to do together. There is something in each of them that must be suppressed until the right moment comes. Finally, after 11 years of separation, their encounter revives all those suppressed feelings. The years of separation has taught Pilar to bury her feelings while the seminarian has resolved his inner conflicts in the seminary.

The book did not only teach me life lessons but it also changed my life. It made me stop and say, " I can also serve God in a different way." It opened my mind to other possibilities that await my future. Perhaps God has other plans for me. Besides, I’ve been in the seminary since I was 12. My world has been confined in seminary life for almost eight years now. I should’ve learned more about the world in those years. Now I have to compensate for that.

But why is it so difficult for a seminarian to leave the seminary? To decide to leave means he has realized that he is probably not ready to pursue his vocation or he’s not really for priesthood. I really admire the courage of the seminarian in the story for opening himself to other possibilities in life. Perhaps his vocation was really to be with Pilar. Perhaps my vocation was really to be with my "Pilar."

The story provokes us to reflect on our lives and find hope for the extraordinariness in what may seem to be so ordinary. There comes a time when we must delve into the labyrinth of human life. To get rid of our fear to take risks and be different from the rest. To not be afraid of what others would think.

Suddenly, I found myself reflecting on what life has been for me. So true is the famous dictum of the philosopher Socrates, "An unexamined life is not worth living." Coelho’s work led me to re-examine my life. I realized how important love is and how it can change everything in us. The seminarian found out that love is the extraordinariness of the ordinary. The world was created out of love and we are part of it.

The legend of the River Piedra says that everything that falls into the waters of this river is transformed into the rocks that make the riverbed. In the long run, we’ll all end up on our own River Piedra. There will surely be a time for us to put everything in its proper place for our lives to run smoothly. What’s important is how courageous we are when we embark on this journey called life.