The beggar king and the secret of happinessI thought a book with a cover of a little odd looking farmer planting stars all over the meadow would be pretty suckish. Not to mention the retarded and lame title: The Beggar king and the secret of happiness. It just sounds like something for the diapered babies. With a little cute story each page and illustrations on the back always give one a good laugh. But it was not to be that way, I soon knew.The story oddly began with a story. The beggar king. He was once a highly respected king with a glorious city and massive achievements. You see, bad things always tend to happen with lucky dudes. Just so to fit this statement, the king was somehow dumped into the middle of a desert. And hu-la, he gets to be a beggar. Great, I just got myself a pad of fairytales to read before I realize it was something worse.The real story talks about the story of a story teller. Now how awkward is that. Joel Ben Izzy goes on and babbled about how his grandfather gave him the inspiration of telling stories and how both his parents were never able to fulfill their lives with success. And I was like, oh crap, is this some kind of biography of some unimportant guy who wants to make fame of himself?But things soon got interesting, lucky that I didn’t have to sleep my way through the whole process and just get down a few spark notes instead. John’s father worked his butt off and spent his whole life chasing after his dreams but never got close. He tried to be a violinist, unfortunately caught a rare disease and can no longer move his fingers like normal people can. And at the end as a conclusion to his failure he quoted a Yiddish expression, “People make plans and god laughs.”I remember someone saying, bumblebees can’t fly. The laws of aerodynamics have proven that his wingspan can’t support his body. Good thing for the bumblebee, though, he doesn’t follow those laws, and goes on flying just the same. And I laughed my head off. I heard the Olympic athletes are all trying to break the record of moving ten meters per sec. That’s it, just give yourself some lies and hope goes altogether with the lies.The book was written in a humorous and lightened way. I earned my first laugh from the Jewish curse, “May you grow like an onion, with your head in the ground and your ass in the air.” “May all your teeth rot and fall out but one, and in that one may you have the toothache from hell.”And I thought this book could actually be quite fun if I jogged down a few tips and imply them when ever I feel like insulting somebody. The power of words gives you ultimate satisfaction.Then this John dude was told he had thyroid cancer. After the surgery, he lost his voice forever. But he’s a story teller! Ever since he had to talk through whispers and gasps and lost faith in his life. This is when Lenny, his former teacher comes along and together they went on a journey through personal struggles, losses, hope, love and the secret of happiness.Lenny, as a story teller told a story. There was a country where wild mｏnkeys ran around. People drop a peanut in a glass bottle. When mｏnkeys clutch to peanuts and won’t let go, their hands get stuck. But they cared too much for the peanut so they walk around with a bottle stuck to their hands. That made catching much more easily. It’s like we are all mｏnkeys and what we think will make us happy really can’t. And life is about letting go. That’s why people came with the fists clutched together and died with them lose.John realized he can tell stories even without his voice, and that every person’s life is a story with different flavors."I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.I learn by going where I have to go."There are some books you forget after entertaining yourself, there are some books which you may have a vague impression of its plot. And there’s one kind of books which you may forget its plot after many years, but still remains a truth you believe in. You may ask, is this story true? And the question is not whether the story is true, but whether it has truth in it. The kind with a capital T. And yet truth is not all that easy to find, there are stories in this world that need to rattle around inside your brain for twenty years before they reveal a final, hidden grain of truth.The book didn’t have a sharp-edged ending to it, which would be unnecessary. Sometimes the best ending is to leave things as they are. And a real ending isn’t what happens, but what you realize and who you are to become.