I am reading eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert for my book group. I usually wrinkle my nose at non-fiction reading, but she writes with enough humor and glibness that it's not bad. I remember reading a couple of books by Ann Lamott - back during my slow exit from Christianity. I found it hopeful that someone could have dredlocks, be a single mom, say "fuck" all the time, be a hippy, and STILL be a Christian. Turns out that I found the Christian core to be the hard part - not the typical trappings (overly coiffed hair, the pursed lips at the use of "inappropriate language," etc.) But I liked her books at the time, despite their lack of fiction (she has written several fiction books, but I haven't read any of them).

eat, pray, love seems to be similarly written (although Beloved thought a passage that I had read outloud to him was horrid). I still wonder if the "pray" part will make me squirm. I likely squirm too much, and in an unhealthy way.

I am in the very beginning of the book now, and I am slightly encouraged that her first attempt at prayer resulted in a quiet internal voice responding to her cries for help. Which I think is the effect of "prayer" (or, meditation, or careful thought, or pausing for a moment to really focus yourself on something that you need to work out - or whatever you want to call it). A grounding; a centeredness.

But despite that, I never do it. I'm still too busy being bitter about anything that resembles religion.

So, in many ways, this book seems like a challenge to me. I think I welcome the challenge.

Labels: books, religion

posted by Zuska @ 3:43 PM

0 Comments: