Page 590

[Alexandr Korol]

That is also a paradox. But if you write and share your happiness — that you
understand something, that you have a skill, that you are capable, that you
are succeeding — then that’s it: they want to destroy you.
So, if you look at me and my book as an example — the negative side is easy
to see: people can think it’s some kind of business plan, a project, or that
someone is standing behind me. Fine, that’s all well and good, but those are
angry emotions and thoughts that fog the mind and fool a person, making
them forget everything good. But what if you think about the good? Imagine
a person of the 21st century — me, essentially not from an old generation,
I am still young — and imagine that I chose this path instead of being a
party-boy blogger in Bali. I am that boy who chose the path of being a
writer, who actually spends thousands of hours with books. How many
people in your circle do you know who are real writers and have written
more than 30 books? That is how you should think about me and the
books, for instance. But I’m just using myself as an example. Take your
parents as an example as well. I have always been horrified when I hear
that almost every second person speaks poorly of their parents. I truly
don’t understand how that is possible. Okay, misunderstandings happen,
but these are your parents. Start with the person closest to you. Experiment
with them: start looking for all their positive sides, qualities, and strengths.
Every single day, rack your brain and write down what strengths you see
in your loved one. Imagine: your parents are the ones who accepted you
as you are; no matter how much they corrected you, parents are the ones
who won’t abandon you. Statistically, of course, different parents exist, but
generally speaking, a parent will forgive everything and close their eyes
to everything. Even now, for example, American movies show that if their
child decides to change their gender, the parent eventually comes to terms
with it. They show how painful it is, but then they accept it because they love
their child. I’ll say this: in some Muslim countries, or in the CIS and Russia,
I think a father would definitely turn away from his son if he changed his
gender or did something even worse. It’s a different culture, after all, and
it’s seen as abnormal. Yet elsewhere, you see these boundaries being blurred
and hinted at as normal. So there are exceptions. You must understand that
only if you did something truly beyond the pale and evil might your parents
turn away from you. But this isn’t about family and children right now;