Eat, Pray, Love: Spiritual Quest or Chick Flick?

August 16, 2010 by Alyce McKenzie

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After seeing the movie Sunday afternoon I went to choir practice that evening and sat next to Kathy. "How did you like the movie?" she asked me.

"I don't think they depicted the reasons for her unhappiness with her first husband Stephen very well. She came off as cold-hearted and self-centered in leaving him and David (her younger lover played in the movie by James Franco). It seemed like it was all about her. Her first husband had a point when he asked her why she couldn't find herself with him, why she had never expressed her unhappiness to him and the first he heard of it was when she left."

"I agree," replied Kathy. "Plus not everyone can afford to go away for year and have all those experiences. At the end I wondered to myself, what did she really learn?"

Maybe so many women related to the book because we all yearn to go on external, adventurous pilgrimages, but can't all afford the time and expense. There is still ample opportunity, however, for internal pilgrimages, journeys from self-absorption to turning our love outward toward the world. The greatest mystics of the Christian tradition have always insisted that genuine journeys of prayer don't lead inward without leading outward, without resulting in a bigger heart for the world. In the words of Richard the Texan, "Groceries, (his pet name for the author) you have the capacity to someday love the whole world." (149) We all do. And we don't have to leave home to do it.

But a trip to the movie theater and a vicarious adventure now and then never hurt.

I enjoyed the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love. And maybe Julia Roberts was right in shifting the movie's emphasis from spiritual quest to saga of romantic healing. After all, she's the mega-watt movie star who knows what plays at the box office. As author Gilbert herself asked, "How long can you watch someone meditating?"

Advertisements often carry the caption "Don't try this at home." If seeing the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love sparks our interest in reading or rereading the book, then we may find ourselves, not just watching Julie Roberts meditate in a Hindu ashram, but praying with more frequency ourselves. A spiritual pilgrimage is absolutely something we can try at home!

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8/16/2010 4:00:00 AM

Media

Meditation

Movies

Pilgrimage

Prayer

Hinduism

Christianity

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About Alyce McKenzie

Alyce M. McKenzie is the George W. and Nell Ayers Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

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