Eat, Pray, Love

I’m finally getting around to this book.  I have a rather long commute (2 hours + per day) so I’ve taken to audiobooks in the car to pass the time.  I find it works better than just the news and music.  I recently finished a fabulously trashy fantasy erotica series (well at least the first 12 books) about Warrior Immortals that are paired with Demons and the human and immortal women they fall in love with.  I thoroughly enjoyed the series and my only concern is rolling up to a red light with the windows down and startling the person next to me if they’re in the middle of yet another graphic sex scene. *snert*

However, I’m now on to something a bit different.  LML downloaded Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I know that there was a movie about it with Julia Roberts and it took place in India, that was all I knew about this book as it started.  I really liked that it was actually read by the Author, it feels very genuine.  That being said there’s quite a bit I like about this book and there are some things that I really don’t like about this book.

What I don’t like about it.

The Author seems to have a rather negative view of prescription medication for mental illness.  I appreciate that she wants to use it ONLY as a last resort and that her goal is to “get off it” as soon as possible, but as someone who’s been well medicated for over 2 decades and knows that “getting of it” is not a possibility ever I find that narrow mindset insulting.  What if she was diabetic?  Would she view it as a failure if she required insulin?  Would she constantly be beating herself up for not getting over diabetes and getting off the insulin?  Is she frustrated with her body because she needs birth control to prevent getting pregnant?  Some people simply do have a chemical imbalance and the medication balances them out.  She doesn’t think medication should be used without psychiatry, I can’t imagine what my life would look like if I’d been seeing a psychiatrist for the past two decades.  What a colossal waste of time it would have been for me and the doctor.  I’m good, I’m healthy, I just require medication to keep my body functioning and that doesn’t make me less of a person than her.

What I do like about it.

I love hearing about religions that I know little to nothing about.  I grew up in a very Catholic environment and while my family wasn’t religious AT ALL, my friends were and I’d attended Roman Catholic services and Mormon services and none of that ever rang true for me.  I married into an Anglican family (first time around) and while I had a lot of respect for the Pastor, it never connected with me.  However, listing to the Author talk about “connecting with God” and how “God dwells within all of us” it connects me to things I’d heard before “how we are made in His image” that it’s okay to be truly who we are as we are exactly as we are meant to be and that denying that would be an insult to God.  She uses the term God not in deference to the Catholic religion, just that is the word she is most comfortable with.  I cringed in the beginning as it’s not a word I’m comfortable with but she does reference other deities in trying to be inclusive in her descriptions so I appreciate that.

The bottom line is I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about a book before so the fact that it’s giving me such a strong positive and negative reaction is a good thing, means it’s making me think and feel.  That and I want to do Yoga and Meditate more.