Book Club: Eat, Pray, Love: 22-24

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 22

I admire Gilbert’s decision to take a break from dating while she’s in Italy. Despite being there to pursue pleasure, she knows that she has to focus on herself for a little while without the drama of trying to please a man or make herself different for a man. She says she’s been with someone continuously since she was 15. I don’t quite have that experience, but from the time I started dating at 19 to nearly ten years later, I was not out of a relationship for more than a week or two.

There’s a fear of being alone, of having to sit with one’s loneliness, of having to really hear one’s self. You can hide from that in another person. But, at least in my case, it seemed the men could always tell that I was not authentically there. Some part of me was missing. And so I could never get the commitment I wanted.

It wasn’t until I dedicated myself to a year of no dating that I was able to recenter and fully mature into the person who could attract the perfect husband for me!

So I definitely understand where Gilbert is coming from when she takes this time to just be with herself and her loneliness and not try to hide it in distraction.

Bead 23

I don’t have much to say on this one! Gilbert attends a soccer match with an Italian friend and enjoys the creative cursing of the old man sitting behind them. It is fun and it’s great to see how much she really loves and appreciates the Italian language.

Bead 24

More on language. I’m jealous of her being somewhere that she can practice her new language and she can learn idioms/expressions in Italian. Idioms are such a tricky part of a new language to pick up. Partly because no one teaches them!

Her explanation of “I’ve been there” to comfort someone is lovely. It’s true that I haven’t thought before of how incomplete that sentence sounds. She talks about how grief is like a physical place.