The Man Who Wanted to Be Happy by Laurent Gounelle

Author:Laurent Gounelle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2012-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

13

I WAS SUDDENLY very aware of what little time I had left before my departure, and I wanted to get things done without delay. I had understood during this session that the tasks he gave me to do between meetings were not meaningless, and now I had my heart set on achieving those he had set for me that day.

Admittedly, I was not enthusiastic about the idea of doing what I hated: going up to people to ask them to do something for me, but I was curious to see what I would get out of it in the end, since—I was sure of this now—everything the healer asked me to do had a purpose.

So I went to Ubud, a place where I knew I could find Westerners. Going up to Balinese would have been a waste of time; they didn’t know how to say no.

How was I going to start? I had to formulate requests in such a way that they would be refused. In short, I had to make sure I ended with the result that, normally, I took great care to avoid. So, five times, I was going to hear the final no of people dismissing me. Great.

The main street was fairly lively in the midafternoon. Perfect: I would be able to hide my repeated disgraces more easily.

“Taxi! Taxi!” Balinese were calling to tourists all over the place. One of them spoke to me.

“I haven’t any money on me. Can you take me to Kuta for free?” I said with a laugh.

“It’s fifty thousand rupiahs. You can pay on the way back,” he said with a broad smile.

“No, I have no money. Can you make it a present?”

“Okay, you’re nice. For you, it’s thirty thousand rupiahs.”

“No. For free. A present.”

“Okay, twenty thousand rupiahs.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Look, we’ll go to Kuta, and we’ll discuss the fare. We’ll reach an agreement. Come on, in you get!”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll go some other way, thank you.”

I was more and more embarrassed.

“Come on, get in. We’ll come to some agreement.”

“It’s okay, thanks—thanks a lot.”

“Come on!”

“No, thank you, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to Kuta anymore. Bye.”

He watched me walk away, amused, as though to say, “These Westerners are really weird.”

Right, one attempt wasted. I had heard five no’s, but I was saying them! In any case, why had I gone up to a Balinese, when I’d decided that was pointless? No doubt because it was easy. The Balinese were very mild and very nice, and they put me more at ease than my compatriots and their neighbors. I had to face the obvious: I was so afraid of being rejected that I preferred to increase the difficulty of the exercise rather than face my fear. Come on, I was going to summon up my courage, face my anxiety, quickly get my five no’s, and run and hide on my deserted beach.

I looked around. There were numerous people on the narrow pavement of the main street. Some were coming out of

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