Book Review: Eat Pray Love
I may be the last one on the blogosphere to succumb to the Eat Pray Love Phenomenon. But ohh well – you can never have too much of a good thing I guess!
Elizabeth is mostly a victim of her own optimism when it comes to her life. Why it is hard for her to overcome this – is the simple fact that she is inherently an optimistic person – and cannot be too cynical…its then that she realizes what she eloquently says that often her wishbone…is where her backbone ought to be ! Successive failures in her personal life – leave her so depleted emotionally that she wakes up one day and realizes that she doesn’t have an appetite for life – well – not at least the way she used to.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow – when she realizes that what she doesn’t have – she cannot give and thus cannot get from others.
Human beings are strange creatures. Elizabeth describes a situation that her friend – a counselor finds herself in. This lady is a highly qualified and experienced counselor whose new assignment is to help a group of a few hundred refugees from Cambodia who have been granted asylum in New York. On her first day – she is highly intimidated – these guys have seen it all – lived through it all – genocide, poverty, earthquakes and what not. But a strange predicament awaits her in her sessions – all that gets spoken about in the sessions is – about how someone met this girl in the camp who left him for another guy and how some lady couldn’t forgive her ex husband for not supporting her. Every problem that got discussed was about human relationships. And yes – as we all know – they can get pretty complicated.
The process of soul searching can get pretty intense. Like is there really a reason why we need to know the answer to certain broad open ended questions like “What did I do wrong” or “Where is my life going” at 3 freaking am in the morning? I’m not saying we don’t need to know at all. But why possibly at 3 am? As humans –we should be able to forgive ourselves first. Its something that is so hard to do… We should actively try to build that sort of relationship with our own battered souls that allows us to make grave mistakes sometimes. It’s the only possible way to grow and shed who we are in lieu of what we may yet be…if only… When shampoo commercials need to tell us that we should celebrate ourselves “because we’re worth it” …. We know that trouble cannot be too far away…
Something else that really appealed to me in the book is about the power of making choices. Its weird how we spend so much time choosing clothes, what car we will buy or the house we will rent or the food we will order but such little time choosing our thoughts. This is what Elizabeth’s journey is about. Its about actively choosing – to have an appetite for life. To eat, To pray and to love.
A wise healing man in Indonesia hands Elizabeth a picture of a person who has eyes on his chest and arms and legs touching the ground. He tells her than in order to heal she must become like the picture – with arms and legs firmly rooted and she must learn to see with her heart.
The reason why I am recommending this book is because it reminded me yet again of something that helped me battle my own demons not so long ago. That happiness is the direct consequence of committed personal effort. You’ve got to take charge and create the sort of life and experiences you wish to have. Life is like being at the prom. You got all prettied up – but if you lurk in the shadows – no ones going to dance with you. You’ve got to step onto the dance floor and shimmy with every ounce of energy you have.
I must admit – I got pretty emotional reading this book at times. I felt her pain and I felt her joy. It helped me reconcile with some loose ends in my own life and appreciate and not hide my battle scars.
I know its cheesy– when a book reminds you of your own journey. But hey – if you are here reading this blog – then its not a surprise to you – because we love cheesy J
It made me want to celebrate. And I hope that you read it and celebrate too.
Much Metta
Kau
