Eat? Pray? Love? A rant.

So I have this guilty pleasure of visiting Oprah.com every other day to catch up on what her shows are/were about. I don't have a tv, so I don't actually watch the show. Plus, I don't want to be OR appear to be an Oprah-disciple. THAT said, once in a while there is something of interest on the show that I like to read about.

Last night I read about her latest guest, Liz Gilbert who apparently wrote a book called "Eat, Pray, Love". I'd never heard of this book, but from what I read, Oprah and a million other women in America LOVE it. So I read on about what made this book so special. And why is Oprah's perpetually well-dressed, clean-cut, wealthy-classed audience so enthusiastic about it?

Basically the book is about the author's own spiritual journey. Apparently she had "it all," the career, the husband, the blah blah blah. Then she decided it wasn't what she wanted out of life, so she just got a divorce (simple, huh?) and started traveling the world in search of pleasure, "god" and balance. Hmm... kind of a strange and contradictory amalgamation of pursuits.

After eating in Italy for four months, worshiping in an ashram in India for four months and studying under a shaman for four months in Bali, she found love and wholeness and universal peace....

So. What have I got against the whole concept of finding happiness? Well, when a book has inspired women to cavalierly leave marriages, pursue pleasure and psuedo-spirituality--all in the name of "happiness"-- I can't help but sigh.

Different guests on the show praised the author for helping them "out" of the normal life they were headed towards. The husband, the house, the kids, (oh my!) etc. Now they boast of world-travels, exotic, intellectually stimulating careers and a strange new religion that, not surprisingly, revolves only around themselves.
Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of this new "revolution" is that it's self-seeking behavior which you'd expect from a teenager, NOT mature, grown women. The religion of "me" is truly infiltrating our culture, and everyone of every age wants a part in it. Forget child-rearing and a nurturing home environment and a healthy marriage: there is apparently NO JOY in that. Why devote your life to the service of others when there's windsurfing to do in the Caribbean? Yogis to glean from in India? Semolina products to consume in Italy?

I'm not saying that traveling or having adventures in and of themselves is necessarily wrong or selfish. I think we need to take breaks and relax and make sure our needs are met each day. But the constant search for pleasure? That isn't what makes life LIFE. It won't grant long-time fulfillment or satisfaction.
I think what gets me the most is that the author is perpetuating the lie that REAL women don't settle down and "live the norm." Only the brainless, self-destructive, unintelligent women choose the path of marriage, motherhood and mortgages.

Well it just so happens that the women (and men) I admire the most are those who have chosen just that. It's not the women who are seeking to eat for the mere pleasure of eating, or pray for the mere self-delusion of "spirituality", or love for the sole benefit of self. It's the women who, day by day, have to remind themselves to eat because they're too preoccuppied taking care of others. The women who struggle to pray to the true God and maintain a rich, genuine relationship with Him via their prayer life. The women who choose to love the husbands they chose, throug the good and the bad. The women who love their children, even when there are no thanks or praise in return of their motherly self-sacrifice.

It would be all too easy to plug into the culture and buy into the deceptive belief that Ms. Gilbert (and Oprah) are trying to sell. But all in all, I see right through this flimsy theology of "Me." Lord have mercy.