Javier Vidal-Quadras, the Assistant Director of the UIC’s Institute of Advanced Family Studies (IESF), has written a new book, A las alfombras felices no les gusta volar (Happy Carpets Don’t Like Flying). The book is published by Troa and was officially presented at the UIC on Thursday, 11 December 2014. Montserrat Gas, the Director of the IESF, and Victoria Cardona, a writer and family guidance counsellor, were among those who spoke at the presentation.
This new book by the lawyer and writer Javier Vidal-Quadras takes the form of a simple fable about happiness. In the author’s words, “Happiness cannot be found by searching for it directly. Like sleep during a restless night, it can only come about indirectly. The more we forget about it, the closer we get to it; the more we concentrate on it, the more it slips from our grasp. We need to be happy, but the road to happiness is so difficult to find! My suggestion is that we avoid complexity. Sometimes the simplest things reveal what is most important”.
“Readers may not make any great discoveries with this book, but perhaps they’ll rediscover the core of humanity, which does not lie within themselves, but in other people. This is the book’s clear and direct message: that the way to love ourselves is by loving others. That’s where happiness lies: in the great paradox whereby losing oneself is the key to finding oneself”, explained Vidal-Quadras during his presentation.
“A carpet is always there to serve: it doesn’t judge, discriminate or engage in introspection, it welcomes whoever steps or sits on it. A carpet’s mission is to make life a little more pleasant for everyone else”, he continued. This life lived “outside oneself” and focused on others is what the author wants to show the reader; in other words, the unexpected happiness of the carpet.
Javier Vidal-Quadras is married and has a large family. As well as being a practising lawyer and a founding partner of the firm Amat & Vidal-Quadras, he also lectures in Law at the Universitat Abat Oliva and is the Assistant Director of the IESF, the Vice President of the Family Development Centre (FERT) and the Secretary General of the International Federation for Family Development. In addition to his latest title, Vidal-Quadras is also the author of Después de amar te amaré (After Loving, I Will Love You), Un paseo en bicicleta por la vida (A Bicycle Ride Through Life), Hamo, un hombre en busca de sí mismo (Hamo: The Man Who Was Searching for Himself), Vábienlor, las últimas palabras (Vábienlor: The Final Words) and Vábienlor, los bifaces (Vábienlor: The Two Faces).
