Favorite Line

An Indian friend of mine gave me a book to read called Eat Pray Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert) because she read it when she was in graduate school and she felt that it helped her on her quest for self-examination about her future. Since I am at that stage in my positioning as a graduate student, she felt that it could offer me some of the same perspective. Since it was an #1 New York Times Bestseller, I decided to give it a whirl.

I enjoyed the book. I did. It took me quite a long time to get through it because 1. I don't have a lot of free time to read 2. I'm a very slow reader. I have to say, I don't agree with many of the things said in the book, but I did feel that if aspects are applied to my faith in Christ, I could be better off. That is how I decided to use this woman's memoirs of her journeys through Italy, India and Indonesia.

I liked the third section of the book the best. This section is about her quest to seek balance in her life between the spiritual and the living. It's about her time in Bali and her learning, I think, to love herself. Anyhow, in her 4th story about Bali, she begins talking about the three questions a Balinese will almost certainly ask you. That question is "Are you married?"

I love what she says:

"They really want you to say yes. It's such a relief to them when you say yes. If you're single, it's better not to say so directly. And I really recommend that you not mention your divorce at all, if you happen to have had one. [...] If you are a single woman traveling through Bali and somebody asks you, "Are you married?" the best possible response is "Not yet." This is a polite way of saying, "No," while indicating your optimistic intentions to get that taken care of just as soon as you can."

"Even if you are eighty years old, or a lesbian, or a strident feminist, or a nun, or an eighty-year-old strident feminist lesbian nun who has never been married and never intends to get married, the politest possible answer is still: "Not yet.""

I thought this was great. i laughed so hard at this... Gilbert's writing style is so real... I love it. If you've got the time, read the book. You'll have fun with it.