Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (#5, Nonfiction)

After over a year of my posts, I think everyone is aware of the fact that I strongly dislike reading "bestsellers". But, at the same time, sometimes there are books that I just have to know what the big deal is all about. Eat, Pray, Love was one of those books. I think it is sort of like that band you have found that no one knows about, and then a year later you can't stop hearing them on the radio. I know a lot of people who claim that they read Eat, Pray, Love long before the neverending buzz about it, and they claimed to have enjoyed it for what is was without all the hoopla. So, I just had to find out for myself.

I enjoyed it. I found her prose interesting. Somehow she makes present day conversational writing work. Stories about foreign countries always interest me because I love to travel, and I think her general messages were good, but I do have to take issue with what caused her to have the need for such an intense spiritual journey.

Everyone has problems. As we get older, we realize that everyone has baggage, everyone has a past, and we are all far from perfect. I don't believe that a "charmed life" actually exists. I guess it just irked me how her itty bitty little problems are made to be such a big deal. Yet, I can't blame her, because I think we live in a society where we all expect everything, right now, how we want it, a pill to fix all our problems, material goods, designer fashion, constant entertainment, expensive bags and jeans, beauty and perfection. We all feel entitled and when things don't go our way, we throw a tantrum. What happened to being happy with what you do have? How about living in a country where we don't have to worry about Genocide, clean water, public education or living under a dictator? Are family and friends not enough? Simple pleasures people, simple pleasures!!

But, I did love the message of the book--creating your own happiness and spirituality. Like some people, I didn't read the book to find my own happiness or spirituality, for me I don't need a book for that. I actually found the perfect paragraph, one in the whole book, that I thought was apropos to characterize me. Liz is in India, during her "Pray" portion of the journey, and she talks about another person at the Ashram, a dairy farmer from Ireland named Sean. He has spent a great portion of his life traveling and searching, to "understand the workings of existence." She writes about Sean, "He was sitting in the kitchen of the old stone house with his father--a lifelong farmer and a man of few words--and Sean was telling him all about his spiritual discoveries in the exotic East. Sean's father listened with mild interest, watching the fire in the hearth, smoking his pipe. He didn't speak at all until Sean said, 'Da--this meditation stuff, it's crucial for teaching serenity. It can really save your life. It teaches you how to quiet your mind.' His father turned to him and said kindly, 'I have a quiet mind already, son,' then resumed his gaze on the fire."

Maybe I should be a dairy farmer in Ireland. :)