The Beauty of An Open-Ended Life

A Short Vignette on "What Open Theism Means"...

Sixty-nine-year-old Paulo Coelho, the celebrated Brazilian writer (author of The Alchemist), was interviewed by Krista Tippett (On Being). She asked him how he would answer the persistent human question: Who am I? Mr. Coelho answered:

"To be totally honest, I don’t know who I am. And I don’t think people ever will know who they are. We have to be humble enough to learn to live with this mysterious question. Who am I? So, I am a mystery to myself. I am someone who is in this pilgrimage from the moment that I was born to the day to come that I’m going to die . . . So what I have to do is honor this pilgrimage through life. And so I am this pilgrim . . . who’s constantly amazed by this journey. Who is learning a new thing every single day . . . I am this person who is proud to be a pilgrim, and who’s trying to honor his journey."

For more, Patricia Adams Farmer, offers further commentary in her short essay "The Beauty of an Open-Ended Life."