Thursday, February 24, 2011

Eat! Pray! Love! Hide it under Ulysses!

You know what, I'm just going to say it. I read Eat, Pray, Love. Twice. And I liked it both times.

And then, last night, I went with two beautiful redheads to the Ethical Culture Society to listen to Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote it, speak. Yeah. That's right.

Usually I don't like being counted among groups of women. The more they all look like me, the more I hate it and the more I want to get a tattoo on my face. Two women who run a gourmet chocolate company were at this event, giving free samples. I wish they didn't but they knew their audience. That chocolate was good.

Either this was an unusual event or I'm calming down with age, because rather than trying to re-imagine myself into a person too unique to enjoy a pop culture phenomenon for ladies, I felt kind of relieved. I'm relieved that an Ethical Culture society building full of women responded to that story the same way I did. For once, I'd rather not be alone.

Right before the event, Rachel leaned over and whispered "this is going to ruin the book." And then a miraculous thing happened. It' didn't. Elizabeth Gilbert appears to be a flawed person with a tremendous amount of grace. She had about ten years on most of the audience, and we clearly, really needed an auntie. As she talked about failing and getting confused and making lists and feeling shitty, I could feel a collective sigh of not insignificant relief.

It was nice.

No comments:

Post a Comment