The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho Page B

never the same for any two people. Just like the stars I was talking about half an
     hour ago. And no one can escape eros. Everyone needs its presence, despite the fact that
     many times, eros makes us feel apart from the world, trapped in our solitude.
    The band began to play a waltz. The guests went to a small cement section in front of the
     bandstand and started to dance. The alcohol was making itself felt, and people were
     perspiring more and smiling more. I noticed a girl dressed in blue who looked as if she
     had waited for this wedding just to have the chance to dance the waltz she wanted to
     dance with someone who would embrace her in the way she had dreamed of since adolescence.
     She was watching a well-dressed boy, who wore a white suit and stood among his friends.
     They were all talking and had not noticed that the waltz had begun. Nor did they see that
     a few yards away, a girl in a blue dress looked longingly at one of them.
    I thought about small towns and marriage to the boy one has dreamed of since childhood.
    The girl in blue saw that I was watching her and tried to conceal herself among her
     girlfriends. As she did, the
    boy searched for her with his eyes. When he saw that she was there with her friends, he
     went back to his con- versation with his own group.
    I pointed out the two of them to Petrus. He watched the game of glances for a while and
     then went back to his cup of wine.
    They act as if it were shameful to make any show of love, was all he said.
    A girl near us was staring at Petrus and me. She must have been half our age. Petrus held
     up his cup of wine and made a toast in her direction. The girl laughed in embarrassment
     and pointed toward her parents, as if to explain why she did not come closer.
    Thats the beautiful side of love, Petrus said. The love that dares, the love for two older
     strangers who have come from nowhere and will be gone tomorrow gone into a world where
     she would like to travel, too.
    I could hear in his voice that the wine was having an effect on him.
    Today, we will talk of love! said my guide, a bit loudly. Let us speak of true love, which
     grows and grows, and makes the world go round, and makes people wise!
    A well-dressed woman near us seemed not to be paying any attention at all to the party.
     She went from table to table, straightening the cups, the china, and the silverware.
    See that woman there? asked Petrus. The one whos straightening things up? Well, as I said,
     eros has many
    faces, and thats another of them. Thats frustrated love, with its own kind of unhappiness.
     She is going to kiss the bride and groom, but inside shell be saying that a knot has been
     tied around them. Shes trying to neaten up the world because she herself is in complete
     disor- der. And there he pointed toward another couple, the wife wearing excessive makeup
     and an elaborate coif- fure is eros accepted. Social love, without a vestige of passion.
     She has accepted her role and has severed any connection with the world or with the good
     fight.
    Youre being very bitter, Petrus. Isnt there anyone here who can be saved?
    Of course there is. The girl who was watching us, the adolescents that are dancing they
     know only about good eros. If they dont allow themselves to be influ- enced by the
     hypocrisy of the love that dominated the past generation, the world will certainly be a
     different place.
    He pointed to an elderly couple sitting at one of the tables.
    And those two, also. They havent let themselves be infected by hypocrisy like the others.
     They look like working people. Hunger and need have required them to work together. They
     learned the practices you are learning without ever having heard of RAM. They find the
     power of love in the work they do. Its there that eros shows its most beautiful face,
     because its united with that of philos.
    What is philos?
    Philos is love in the form of friendship. Its what I feel toward you