Book Club: Eat, Pray, Love: 21

The second book in our book club series is Eat, Pray Love. Is it a Hindu book? Not exactly, but it is very relevant to the experiences of non-Indian Hindus. The author has a Hindu guru (whose identity has been rather easily found out by those familiar with the world of Indian gurus). Julia Roberts after playing the author in the movie, claimed to have become a Hindu. So I think it will be worthwhile to examine the experiences and stories that led these women towards Hinduism…

Bead 21

It’s a good thing Gilbert went to Italy. It seems like she’s in desperate need of learning how to relax and enjoy the pleasure of nothing.

She points out how against American culture this is. I recognize what she means when she says she’s from a long line of superconscientious people. “My mother’s family were Swedish immigrant farmers, who look in their photographs like, if they’d ever seen something pleasurable, they might have stomped on it with their hobnailed boots.”

Though we as a nation seek entertainment, Gilbert makes the argument that it is not the same as pleasure. We seem to enjoy working very hard and then never relax. “We all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure).”

In Italy she discovers the idea of “the beauty of doing nothing.”

I can’t even imagine! I push myself very hard and never feel like I’m doing enough. If I spend a day not being productive and accomplishing something, anything, I slip into depression. This despite Hinduism’s emphasis on being. Just being. Even when “doing” the Self is still. We are to learn to do without identifying so heavily with the one doing the doing.

At the same time, I’ve always had a strong reaction against the word “pleasure.”

It reeks of self-indulgence and therefore, selfishness. Waste of time and energy that should be used towards achieving enlightenment. But that’s part of the problem. Thinking of enlightenment as something that has to be earned and worked at and achieved. That’s my New England roots showing!

Gilbert finds that Italians are hard workers, but hard workers who delight in the simple pleasures of life. They respect that their work earns them time for true enjoyment.

From my last time reading through this book, I highlighted this passage:

“For me, though, a major obstacle in my pursuit of pleasure was my ingrained sense of Puritan guilt. Do I really deserve this pleasure? This is very American too–the insecurity about whether we have earned our happiness.”

Oh man. That could not possibly be more familiar. I feel like she’s reading my mind!

She says that when she tells her Italian friends that she’s here to experience four months of pure pleasure, they congratulate her and have no issues with it. No calling her irresponsible or self-indulgent. She still has trouble letting go and actually doing it, though.

I love how she describes trying to take on pleasure like a homework assignment.

I personally have no desire to go to Italy. It isn’t a dream for me like it was for Gilbert. But these ideas are good reminders. What’s the point of working hard if you never take a moment to enjoy your life? Stop and smell the roses, as the saying goes.

Gilbert takes some time to focus on asking what makes her happy and just doing it. The result is that she doesn’t go to museums out of that sense of guilt that one should go to museums! Instead, she realized she just wanted to eat and to speak Italian. And so she does.

This seems like a great way to structure a vacation. Really think about what you want to do and don’t feel guilty if you don’t enjoy the things you think you should or that you want to do so you look like a “cultured” person!

And her descriptions of that simple, fresh food she’s eating sounds absolutely amazing.