Francesc Miralles (1) (1968–)

El 23 de octubre de 1940, coincidiendo con la visita de Hitler a Hendaya, el jefe de las SS Heinrich Himmler escondió en las montañas de Montserrat una misteriosa caja que contenía el gran secreto del Führer. Setenta años después, el periodista Leo Vidal recibe el encargo de hallar una fotografía inédita de aquella expedición a Montserrat. En su investigación, que se convertirá progresivamente en un oscuro y peligroso juego, recorrerá medio mundo hasta descubrir, casi sin quererlo, uno de los grandes misterios de la Historia. Una enigmática hermandad internacional ha custodiado el preciado tesoro, ahora, casi 130 años después del nacimiento de Hitler es el momento elegido para que salga a la luz. ¿Podrá alguien detenerlos?… (mais)

The gist: Okinawans consume a rainbow of vegetables, only eat to 80% fullness, do low intensity exercise, have healthy relationships with their friends, smile, live in the present, connect with nature and tend to their allotments (for most of the Okinawans in the book, this is also their ikigai).

The book mainly focuses on Okinawans who are retired in the professional sense, and who busy themselves with social and naturalistic activities around the island. In the UK, people aged 65-79 are also the happiest group in society, but they also live in dramatically different circumstances to younger age groups. With that in mind, can centenarians without a day in day out routine really give effective advice to a millennial yuppie who desperately wants more meaning in her life, but cannot find it?

I think the central problem with this book is that it never really delves into the idea of ikigai, or at least not in a rigorous way. I was often confused by the activities that the authors identified as one's ikigai. For instance, tending to an allotment is indeed an enjoyable task, but if 100% of the people described in the book keep vegetable gardens, then I highly doubt that it is something one 'can be paid for', the bottommost circle of the diagram. Further to that, it is not necessarily something the world needs either, as it is done for the benefit of the individual; low demand is created by such abundance. Below are two similarly inconsistent examples from the book. I would make it three, but there are so few case studies of ikigai actually in the text that I can only really cite two.

> Parenting as ikigai: you may love it, be good at it, the world certainly needs it, but who gets paid for being a parent?

> Being in a relationship as ikigai: your spouse may need you desperately, and you may love her, and you might also be a good partner, but to achieve ikigai you still need to be paid for your relationship, and may have to consider some saucy career options as a result.

Many millenials are deeply talented individuals --musicians, artists, software developers, writers-- with strong senses of both passion and mission. For most of us, however, we haven't been able to turn the things we love, are good at, or which the world needs into professions or vocations. For me, this book fails to acknowledge the disturbing truth of the bottommost circle: it's extremely difficult to get paid for almost anything unless it's on someone else's terms.

I was hoping this book would reconcile internal goals with external limitations, but it doesn't. Instead, it just seems to glorify a culture of either starving artists, or low expectations. In which case, who the hell would want to live to 100?… (mais)