Becoming Wise is supported by the Fetzer Institute.

I've had hundreds of big conversations, and my conversation partners share wisdom I carry with me wherever I go.

I love how the Brazilian writer Paolo Coelho reframes the practice of pilgrimage as a journey into the tricky question, who am I?

This is becoming wise. I'm Krista Tippett.

I'm Krista Tippett. It seems to me that really just a core theme that runs through all your writing is life itself as a pilgrimage,

writing as a pilgrimage for you, but also reading as a step on a path to pilgrimage for modern people. So interesting. Absolutely. And I also

do believe that we have this possibility of doing a pilgrimage every single day because a pilgrimage

implies in meeting different people, in talking to strangers, in paying attention to the

almonds and basically in being open to life.

And we live our home to go to work, to go to school.

And we have every single day this possibility, this chance of discovering something new.

So the pilgrimage is not for the privileged one who can go to Spain and to France and walk just 500 miles, but to people who are open to life.

A pilgrimage at the end of the day is basically get rid of things that you are used and try something new.

It's lovely.

And, you know, I have to say something that has intrigued me in my life of conversation,

and I think it seems like a paradox that when someone is able to be most particular,

I'm articulate about their life, that in those moments,

what they say can be most universally heard and felt. And it seems to me that this paradox is

very central to your life of writing and the reach of your writing.

You've said that the driving question behind all of your writing is, who am I?

Who is Paolo Cuelo?

Yes, which is a very tricky question.

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