Eat, Pray, Love: What's Your Word?

   By drodriguez  Sep 14, 2008
109

New York Times Bestseller Eat Pray Love, has elicited its readers to tell whomever they can, be it stranger or friend, that they “must read this book.” Divided into three parts, each verb in the title corresponds to a country, each of which serendipitously, begins with the letter “I”. And since this is a personal journey for its author Elizabeth Gilbert, this is not so much a coincidence as an affirmation that she’s doing exactly what she needs to be doing.

Part One, Italy is the land where Gilbert perfects her conversational Italian and all the while, Eats. She consumes her food with a passion, seeks out the best each city and region has to offer, her exchange with residents is equally passionate, if not about food, then about living and loving and being.

In part one, her Italian friend invokes the theory that, “every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people’s thoughts as they were passing? you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be ? that is the word of the city.”

Apparently Rome’s word is SEX. (And since the Vatican is technically not part of Rome, its own word is POWER.) New York: ACHIEVE. Los Angeles: SUCCEED. The conversation between the two takes the theory down to smaller entities, ultimately to Gilbert’s. What is Elizabeth Gilbert’s word? At that point, after her year-long journey, she doesn’t know, and as she concedes on this page, that is truly the reason for her traverse around the world. (Ultimately she does find her word, and it’s a pretty good one.)

What is your word? Have you found it? What would you need to do to find it?

Make a Comment

 
SHARE
Comments
rosered by rosered | Philadelphia, PA
May 15, 2007

Courage. To be honest, to be a true friend/spouse. To open myself up to be judged by others & to deal with their opinions.

lshauntea by lshauntea | Linwood, PA
May 14, 2007

My word is Love! I have a Loving family!!!

amaneill by amaneill | WYNNEWOOD, PA
May 10, 2007

My word is CLARITY. I find myself in the never-ending pursuit of more clarity in every aspect of my life; work, marriage, friendships, family relationships, self-love, etc.

eagleslover by eagleslover | New Castle, DE
May 10, 2007

My word is Peace. It is something that I am in pursuit of.

JaxxSaxx by JaxxSaxx | national park, NJ
May 09, 2007

My word would be HAPPY.I'm surrounded buy happieness and joy each day{ my family!}

ppolomom by ppolomom | Marlton, NJ
May 09, 2007

I just think of my self as Autum. This word is a good balance of who I am

jacqrich by jacqrich | levittown, PA
May 09, 2007

Enlightened!

gwenni by gwenni | media, PA
May 09, 2007

hope.

aliciajohnson by aliciajohnson | Bensalem, PA
May 09, 2007

LIFE! What can I say..... I love my LIFE!

banshee106 by banshee106 | phila, PA
May 09, 2007

Intrepid. I love the adventure, and the bravery of the word.

irma2812 by irma2812 | cinnaminson, NJ
May 08, 2007

my word is "road" I am a road. each day i travel, ahead, into myself, i discover... sometimes i take a wrong turn, maybe that happens when i need to learn something.

reneelsm by reneelsm | Morrisville, PA
May 08, 2007

Integrity...I hope that I am living my life based on the "golden rules" I learned so long ago in kindergarten...

TinaPB by TinaPB | Avon Lake, OH
May 06, 2007

Intuition -As I get older i learn how to better use it everyday, becoming in tune with myself and everything around me. Some days it takes me completely by surprise.

tanyetta by tanyetta | temecula, CA
May 04, 2007

My word is "lonely" Even though I'm around people all day everyday, I feel "lonely"

crazed_mama07 by crazed_mama07 | LK HAVASU CTY, AZ
May 03, 2007

My word would be "relax". I find myself getting uptight and upset about things that I can't possibly change. By letting these trivial things make me mad, they are controlling me. A deep breath works wonders at changing my whole state of mind.