Eat, Pray, and the Greatest of These is Love
As some of you may well know, the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was given to me by a family friend to peruse while I was in my "dark era." Throughout this time of self-renewal, self-discipline, self-realization and every other "self" thing you can think of, I read gingerly through the book hovering intently (at first) on all the things I didn't like about the first part of the book. The author's story is contrastingly different than mine and I struggled during those times to gain the perspective I needed to understand her view of the world.
A year and a half later I am wading through the intellectual mud of the book and taking in the fact that as different as societies are, the cultural boundaries are almost nonexistant as the human bond between all comes forefront. I thought today was the perfect day to share some of my favorite exerpts of the book. Mind you, since I've been reading it so long most of these passages come from the "end" of the book. The love part, you know. I enjoyed the Italian "eat" part too but I'm not equipped to publically comment on that section at this time. What I am going to put forth for discussion are some interesting ideas to broaden the mind and provoke thought within each of ourselves.
First of all this is perhaps my favorite concept of the book and one, I think, that most people would rush hurriedly through without a second thought. When Liz is in Bali and raising money for her friend Wayan and her family to finally build a house of their own and have some stability in their lives so that the little girl, Tutti, can someday go to veterinary school (coincidence? I think not), Liz's friend Bob makes an oxymoronic comment that goes something like this:
"When you set out in the world to help yourself, you inevitably end up helping....Tutti." The word tutti in Italian means "everybody." I am familiar with this as I did have 3 semesters of Italian in college. Isn't that just such a true statement. In faith, we are to give ourselves and our time to help others. In our relationships we are to sacrifice and give to others in order to receive or even just to be altruistic. The two realms of course intercollide. They are both one and the same. However, the fact that when you help yourself you help others is the most circular concept and maybe one of the most simple and complex at the same point in time.
A year and a half later I am wading through the intellectual mud of the book and taking in the fact that as different as societies are, the cultural boundaries are almost nonexistant as the human bond between all comes forefront. I thought today was the perfect day to share some of my favorite exerpts of the book. Mind you, since I've been reading it so long most of these passages come from the "end" of the book. The love part, you know. I enjoyed the Italian "eat" part too but I'm not equipped to publically comment on that section at this time. What I am going to put forth for discussion are some interesting ideas to broaden the mind and provoke thought within each of ourselves.
First of all this is perhaps my favorite concept of the book and one, I think, that most people would rush hurriedly through without a second thought. When Liz is in Bali and raising money for her friend Wayan and her family to finally build a house of their own and have some stability in their lives so that the little girl, Tutti, can someday go to veterinary school (coincidence? I think not), Liz's friend Bob makes an oxymoronic comment that goes something like this:
"When you set out in the world to help yourself, you inevitably end up helping....Tutti." The word tutti in Italian means "everybody." I am familiar with this as I did have 3 semesters of Italian in college. Isn't that just such a true statement. In faith, we are to give ourselves and our time to help others. In our relationships we are to sacrifice and give to others in order to receive or even just to be altruistic. The two realms of course intercollide. They are both one and the same. However, the fact that when you help yourself you help others is the most circular concept and maybe one of the most simple and complex at the same point in time.
The second concept is from one of Liz's favorite Sufi poems. "God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now." Liz indicates that she was never not coming to that place and that it was never not going to happen. I have become a firm believer in the fact that everything happens for a reason. Every person comes into our lives for a reason. God must have a large series of circles for every one of us and in each circle something goes on that changes us, challenges us, and somehow makes a mark on our lives. The concept of circles is very metaphorical and yet so practical to the way I think and conceptualize.
The last concept for today, although I do reserve the right to have a continuance of this topic, is a flaw of human-kind, myself included, that many of us have a "tendency to see the best in everyone" and to "assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential." We end up waiting for these people to "ascend to their own greatness" thinking all along that they will, of course, do this because it's what we do within ourselves. Some people aren't like that! This was a shock for me to stew on! I mean, why on earth wouldn't anyone want to reach their highest potential? Its something I'm familiar with now, but had to learn the hard way about. I cannot imagine a life without myself always struggling to reach my highest potential no matter what the realm (professional, emotional, physcial, etc.).
I finally, after a year and a half, have only 30 more pages of the book to go. To me, reading it has been a journey that I've kept going as I've been going through my own personal journey. The results have been amazing. Someday I'll go back through the Italy portion of the book and come up with a dozen other principles to happily brood about. Until then, I hope some of you will have thoughts to share about the book and about the aforementioned concepts!
Here is Elizabeth Gilbert's website for those of you interested in her work:
I also read this book a while back and while I thought of you, I didn't think you'd want to read it. I liked some of the things she had to say in the India and Bali portions of the book, too. But I had a terrible time getting past her divorce story in the beginning. I think she sounded so awful and selfish. I felt like the whole book was her trying to justify the terrible thing she did to someone else. "I'm cruel, but I'm a deep thinker, so it's OK." I'm glad you were able to glean some uplifting ideas out of it despite that. Are you going to read her new book about marriage? I'm kind of afraid to!
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way!! I also had a terrible time with the beginning. I think that's why it took me so long to read. I have her new book. I think I'll read it just because I'm intrigued about what she'll have to say about it!
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