A friend of mine just asked me if I had read Eat, Pray, Love. It sparked such a strong emotion out of me that I had to write about it. To answer her question: "Yes", I did waste a day in my life that I will never get back, reading the infinite bantering of this woman. And "no", I don't recommend she suck my friend into doing the same. For those of you who have not read the book, cover your eyes for the next few sentences. This New York writer gets a divorce from her husband and doesn't know why her marriage failed. She seeks to go find herself in the following year by spending a lot of her time eating in Italy, praying in India and loving in Bali. I only needed to read the first chapter to know why her marriage failed. She, and possibly her husband, were very self centered, selfish, and small individuals who compare their happiness by what the world gave them and not the opposite. None the less, she goes on this quest and is encouraged by her publisher to write about it. (If I ever get my hands on that lady....) Any how. She goes to Italy, and doesn't work, just spends the day eating and learning Italian from hot Italians. And guess what, she feels happier. No crap! Then she goes to India to learn how to pray from some swami. She really has trouble with this one and doesn't feel like she will ever know true peace until one day when she is in a vow of silence and is given the job of helping other people in the ashram. Surprise, surprise y'all. She suddenly gets an epiphany that it is when she finally serves others she feels true peace and oneness with the Almighty. My true sadness here was that she didn't take a vow to not write.
With all her new found intune-ness she shleps it to Bali where she lives in paradise and seeks more advice from other swamis about her life and happiness instead of praying directly to Heavenly Father who had blessed her with the spirit in the ashram. Finally, when she gets off of her selfish, self centered ride of need she finds that a nice foreign guy is interested in her and they live happily ever after....Yeah, right! Now, I don't know where this writer is now but I bet the farm, she breaks up with Prince Charming just like she did with the first guy. Because she doesn't get it. She never changed who she was and never truly learned to speak with God.
I was disappointed in the book because it took this moron a whole soul searching, agonizing year around the world to learn a truth that I knew since I could form a sentence. That it is only in the service of others that you can truly know happiness. What made me angry was how, not only an entire New York based publishing company thought this was worthy of a book, but also an entire Hollywood company thought it needed to be a movie too. Let me let you in on a much better book. It's the Bible. It has eating, praying and loving in it too but on a much grander scale. If you think this lady served a bunch of hippies in an ashram, you should get a load of Jesus "the Man" Christ. He will blow you away.
But I think that with the world wide success of this movie, most people just can't handle such a read all at once. That is what truly makes my heart ache. Have we really sunk that far? Do we really not remember the simple teachings of the Savior that this gibberish is suddenly a revelation to so many?
If you are a fan of Eat, Pray,Love, and the Bible is too much to sink your teeth into right now on your quest to self enlightenment, let me just say that I am selling my latest book online for a very reasonable price. It is called, "Strain, Poop, Wipe" and it will be cataclysmic in its teachings for you. Here is an excerpt:
Chapter One Strain
Just bear down like you are going to sneeze, but just out of your butt......
Chapter Two Poop
Don't be afraid. Everyone poops. Just yesterday, when I saw the doggie outside poop in front of me, I knew that I could do it too.
Chapter Three Wipe
You will feel lighter. It will make you feel independent. Free and Clean of dingleberries.
So, in short. I read the book. It was all right.
I found your blog!!!
ReplyDeleteYour review cracked me up! I was pretty let down too. If being a selfish a-hole is a "thing" then give me a book deal! :)
Can't wait to "get to know" your family!
Tasha
Excellent post. I too find it tragic how many are "searching" but refuse to admit what they really want requires thinking outside themselves. Scott has no pity for such people. He's a firm believer in "you make your own happiness- which is directly through obedience to God's clear-cut commandments". I am too, but I still feel for these helpless searchers despite their despicable selfishness, because in the places they are looking they will never find real happiness, and that is so sad. Wickedness never was happiness, and I feel like in this day more than ever, people are trying every single path of wickedness to prove otherwise. It's like they are desperately trying to believe there is no right and wrong, anyone can be happy if they're just happy with their choices. They say you don't need to believe in God, as long as you believe in something, or you don't need to do certain things, you just need to be "doing". The old fashioned idea of "there's a right way to live and be happy" has been stomped out and spat on by most of the world. Because of that, their sad search will never end. They dismiss Christianity so quickly, so sure that can't be what they're looking for. Pathetic, and heartbreakingly tragic. I cry for those searchers. Some of them are people very dear to me, who know better, but are "searching" anyway. They're trying to prove there's a better way than God's way. It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.
ReplyDeleterolling laughing....you kill me!
ReplyDelete