Saturday, May 1, 2010

In The Blue Mountains by Paulo Coelho

The day after my arrival in Australia, my publisher takes me to the natural park close to Sydney. There, in the midst of the forest that covers an area known as the Blue Mountains, are three rock formations in the form of obelisks.

'They're the Three Sisters,' my publisher says, and then tells me the following legend.

A shaman was out walking with his three sisters when the most famous warrior of time approached then and said:

'I want to marry one of those lovely girls.'

'If one of them marries, the other two will think they're ugly. I'm looking for a tribe where warriors are allowed to have three wives,' replied the shaman, moving off.

For years, the shaman travelled the Australian continent, but never found that tribe.

'At least one of us could have been happy,' said one of the sisters, when they were old and tired of all that walking.

'I was wrong,' said the shaman,' but now it's too late.'

And he transformed the three sisters into blocks of stone, so that anyone who passed by there would understand that the happiness of one does not mean the unhappiness of others.