I am one of those contrary people (surprise! contrary! Kate?!?) who generally refuses to do something, accept something, or embrace something, if it is even mildly popular. My stubborn nature cheerfully and delightedly shines through when it comes to pop culture.
For example:
I do not like Tom Cruise- and I hate (which is indeed a strong word, especially for me) Top Gun. Like with an unrivaled passion.
Ick to Angelina Jolie (although that may be feminine jealousy over her sex bomb lips).
It took me at least 20 years to figure out that I do indeed love blueberries and cherries- things I refused to eat mostly because my brother, early in our siblinghood, had declared his own passionate taste for them.
I did not read the Harry Potters until well after it was established that they are, in reality, good books.
Oprah's Book Club- YEAH RIGHT.
However- and it kills me to admit it- sometimes pop culture is right. Sometimes the rest of the world can really be onto something. And eventually, usually after much soul searching and internal debate, I will give a phenomenon a go. See my previous blog? Note that I LOVE books. I ADORE books. Everything about books, physical, page-lined books, appeals to my soul. It is not just a preference, it is a spirituality. Books are right. And then I copped up to finally buying a Kindle. That decision gnawed at me much in the same way going on antidepressants to clear up the much-muddied waters of my mind gnawed at me- to put this contrariness into all of its absurd perspective. Yeah... Kindles and Antidepressants... I have a charmingly multifaceted array of clearly provocative issues.
Anywho, I recently embraced Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. I had previously read her work on some nutso named Eustace who lives in sustainable solitude in the mountains of North Carolina and likes to spread the word of nature. I will admit it, that one was fairly entertaining- but most definitely not her most famous work. Then EPL appeared on EVERYONE'S list. So, naturally, it disappeared from mine.
I regret that decision now. I have marked so many pages in this book, mentally underlined so many passages, I have even had a conversation with the book. Truth. A night which began in insomnia ended in me talking to Elizabeth Gilbert, telling her my own (aforementioned) struggles with taking antidepressants, my own wishes to come off of them and be my Self by my Self. Her self-awareness, honesty, and journey appeals to me on a visceral level. I am gobbling her book the way she gobbles gelato in Rome. While I still embrace every bit of socio-religious skepticism about prayer and God that we all know and love in Kate, I cannot deny that I love every bit of what this books means to me on a profoundly personal level.
At the end of the day, you see, it (as in the big IT, LIFE, LIVING, etc., not the book itself) really is about the journey to find one's own space in one's self. And then find love in that space and love that self with all of your being. And then open that space up even more to welcome others into it so that they can experience your grace and love with you. And so that you may experience theirs with them.
I know, I know, I am getting a bit dodgy there. But I challenge my readers to locate that space in themselves. Then eat with it, pray to it, for it and with it, and Love it.
Hot Damn, Liz Gilbert. Will you be my Guru?
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