Eat Pray Love

My Mom just started reading this book called "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I finished it earlier this year. It had been recommended to me by my sister - and it is a must read book for all women. Sorry, but I don't think that guys will relate to it too much.

So Elizabeth Gilbert is going through a personal crisis. She's just had a messy divorce (her husband hates her) and she's had a messy divorce settlement (finances are at an all time low). She has a great offer though - she being a travel writer gets an offer to write a book on her experiences in three countries - Italy (Eat), Pray (India) and Love (Bali, Indonesia).

Italy... yups, you would definitely want to eat a lot there! But maybe your appetite will get curtailed because you'd want to stay in shape just to be able to flirt a little with the cute Italian guys - at least that's what I think. Did I mention that Italian guys are really cute? Cuz they totally are. And Elizabeth Gilbert notices this as well, as she takes up Italian classes with a cute Italian guy who in turn is trying to learn English. You'll zip through the Italy section and come to the following conclusions like I did. Firstly, this job of Gilbert's - being a travel writer, definitely ranks high on the list of good jobs! Secondly, I obviously did not spend as much time as I should have in Italy cuz I don't know any Italian! Another must do on my list of must dos.

The India section is deep. Like, very deep. You'll read a lot of philosophy, though condensed enough for a paper back novel. Elizabeth appears to calm down in this section and reflect back on her life. I remember I read this section while on a trip to Ranthambore National Park in the cold winter month of February. Definitely a good read. We used to sit around the fire in the evenings drinking tea (yes, tea - what else would one drink when it is cold?) and chat. One of my friends and I took this trip together. We had a great time!

Bali is ofcourse, beautiful. You almost feel like you're wobbling along on your cycle through the chaos going to visit the local medicine man. I liked the whole book and was sad when it came to an end. One interesting thing about Bali is that it is almost totally Hindu in population, unlike the Muslim dominated Indonesia of which it is a part of. They follow Balinese Hinduism - and even have their own Om sign. It's very interesting. Bali is a place I haven't been to yet, and I would think would be much easier to access. So hopefully I should go there sometime in the near future!! Europe will have to wait for me in the time being!

At the end of Gilbert's book, you feel all the good things you should feel. Optimism, happiness, gratitude for being alive.... It's a very feel good book. I guess that's why Oprah (from what my Mom has told me) keeps bringing Gilbert on her show. Eat Pray Love is being converted into a film as well. I don't know how they'll convert the thoughts that Elizabeth pens down onto the screen - maybe voice overs will be used. But I sure do know that it'll be a good film to watch!

Though the book is invariably always better than the film.

Ofcourse, in this one, there'll be the cute Italian guys to watch out for!

Pandora's Jar

Pandora is a Greek woman created by a decree of God Zeus. He was angry because a chap named Prometheus stole the secret of fire. So he had Pandora created, as a punishment for Earth. Zeus gave her a jar (not a box as is commonly said) in which he kept all the evil and bad of the world.

Pandora was told not to open the jar and see its contents. But Pandora did. She apparently released all the contents - except hope. Later on however, hope was also released.

So let's ponder over this for a few minutes. Pandora's jar had all the evils in it - but why would hope be an evil?

Hope is the belief that there will be a positive outcome to a certain string of events. I've always associated it with the cloud that has the silver lining, the expectation of good and happiness.

So why did the Greeks consider it to be a dangerous emotion?

One has to look at hope in two ways. One way is that hope forms a way of combatting the day to day evils of the world. It allows you to have faith in the soul of mankind and deal with difficult situations hoping that tomorrow will be a brighter day.

But false hope can lead to disappointment, despair, frustration and agony. I think that this is why the Greeks thought it was an evil. Nietzsche apparently agreed and has gone on record to state that it was some sort of sadistic plot of Zeus to keep man constantly in turmoil by giving him hope. Nietzsche said "Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.".

So what do I think? Well, I don't think that hope should be confused with positive thinking. But I do think that hope is important. Allan K Chalmer's once said "The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." I think it depends a lot on the person as well, like most things. If you're pessimist, you'll view hope as a sad reflection of what cannot possibly be accomplished. If you're an optimist, you see hope as a way of achieving the impossible. Elizabeth Gilbert (author of that excellent novel - Eat Pray Love) said "To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful 'magic skills' that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition."

Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame. Every dog has its day. All good things will happen. You just have to work hard and wait. So what if Pandora opened her jar! As the Brahmakumaris would say, to change the world you have to change your thinking.