the shins: australia (peter bjorn & john remix)
some time last year, i read a salon review of “eat, pray, love,” a non-fiction book by elizabeth gilbert. the reviewer was charmed by ms. gilbert’s travels through italy, india and indonesia as she sampled incredible italian cuisine, prayed with her guru and sought her life’s meaning. i made a note to read the book, since i’m pretty much a sucker when it comes to stories concerning my two heavyweights, Food and Spirituality. i’m also, i admit, kind of a fan of chick lit. i know, I’M SORRY.
anyhoodle
i also happened to forward the review to my dear friend ellen, living far away from me in california. fast forward to my birthday, when i received a lovely package from ellen which included this v. book! ellen bought it after seeing the review, read it and loved it. she had the sneaking suspicion that elizabeth gilbert’s search might somehow influence my own… and she was right. as kindred spirits usually are.
you may notice that this isn’t a book review, cos i haven’t finished it yet. in fact, i just started reading it on sunday. but already i’ve found a few gems that seem to sparkle more brightly in the light of my recent questions, my lingering sadness.
ok let me just stop for a moment and swear (pinkie swear!) that my blog isn’t turning into a mush pot of sentimentality. i promise. there will even be links at the bottom of this entry, so my austere readers won’t be completely grossed out.
are we good? ok. let’s keep going.
i’d like to present a few of the snippets i post-it-ed while reading. the first is one i’ve been rolling around slowly, gently, in my mind:
“i wanted worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence– the dual glories of a human life. i wanted what the greeks call kalos kai agathos, the singular balance of the good and the beautiful. i’d been missing both during these last hard years, because both pleasure and devotion require a stress-free space in which to flourish and i’d been living in a giant trash compactor of nonstop anxiety. as for how to balance the urge for pleasure against the longing for devotion… well, surely there was a way to learn that trick.”
kalos kai agathos. i hear it in my brain, i whisper it when i wake up. i don’t know if i’m saying it right, but i’m saying it.
i’m hoping that if i say it enough, the words will trigger the release of a magical spirit, a transformation, like loosening the trick clasp on a locket so that the person’s heart of hearts will tumble out.
as i get deeper into the book, i feel like liz might be stealing material from me. she writes, “the question now for me is, what are my choices to be? what do i believe that i deserve in life? where can i accept sacrifice, and where can i not?”
for. serious.
one more:
“virginia woolf wrote, ‘across the broad continent of a woman’s life falls the shadow of a sword.’ on one side of that sword, she said, there lies convention and tradition and order, where ‘all is correct.’ but on the other side of that sword, if you’re crazy enough to cross it and choose a life that does not follow convention, ‘all is confusion. nothing follows a regular course.’ her argument was that the crossing of the shadow of that sword may bring a far more interesting existence to a woman, but you can bet it will also be more perilous.”
perilous pants, indeed.
LINKS
if you haven’t seen this AWESOME preview for the next installment of trapped in the closet, you MUST WATCH IT IMMEDIATELY. and then let’s go get a green screen and white suits and insert ourselves into our favorite moments yesssss!!!!
i wonder what else r. kelly has been up to… hmm… probably “just hanging out” with some underage girls… smoking cigars… and working on celine dion’s album? with TIMBALAND? i’m sorry, but, my heart will NOT go on after this.
if abortion became illegal, what would the penalty be?
check out this vintage ad for a custom kitchen, built especially for yr little wife! i hope it came with a dispenser of valium.
so it looks like “sorry, i have to wash my hair,” has been replaced with the infinitely more useful, “sorry, but OMG I JUST GOT ABDUCTED!!”
remember that chocolate rain video? well, the ever fertile youtube has spawned a billion spinoffs. here’s a list of the best, which also includes the original (and the #1 video? exceptional).
“Even with “no reliable data,” he went on to conclude that “severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.” (Apparently, no one has told Justice Kennedy about the severe depression and loss of esteem that can follow bearing and raising a baby you can’t afford and didn’t want.)”
No shit. I’m sick of men, especially men with too much freaking power telling me how I feel, much less what I should do. I really appreciated this article. Especially putting the protesting pro-lifers on the spot. If it’s a crime, what’s the penalty- because to some women, jail time would be shorter and worth the price. Just because we can have children doesn’t mean we have to bear children.
That being said, when the time is right, I can’t wait to have kids. In the meantime, I’ll take the pill.
“But there are only two logical choices: hold women accountable for a criminal act by sending them to prison, or refuse to criminalize the act in the first place. If you can’t countenance the first, you have to accept the second. You can’t have it both ways.”
I thought that article was great. “I hadn’t really thought about it before.” “Just pray for them.” GAH! I really want to see that documentary.
hmm, abduction… i hadn’t considered that angle before.
i love that ducky picture, i saw it on cuteoverload. and what an overload that photo is!!!
OMG! I am reading this book right now cause I had 3 friends tell me it was a must for me. They all said they thought of me when they were reading it and knew I would love it. They were right. I love it! I have about 20 more pages to go and let me say it just gets better and better. I have contemplated downloading the audiobook to my ipod so can listen to it anytime, anywhere. There are so many wonderful passages that I read and re-read like 12 times. I know I’m slow with this comment since you wrote this 4 days ago but I’ve been sick so I’m just now rejoining the world. Oh well, it gave me time to read more of this fabulous book.
celina, i’ve been putting a tab on each page that amazes me… and now there are about fifteen yellow tabs sticking out of my book (and i’m only halfway done). so glad you loved it, too!
i want to cover my cubicle in quotes from this book.