Awaiting boarding at Minneapolis Airport

During my recent trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota, a good friend from Kuwait gifted me (aside from our 3-way shared room at the Doubletree Suites) with a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book Eat Pray Love.  As I sat in front of Gate E10 at the Minneapolis International Airport, awaiting the boarding of my flight back to LA, I opened my new book to the Introduction Or How This Book Works Or The 109th Bead, the longest title for an Introduction that I’ve ever seen. Whew. I was intrigued, and the more I read, the more I got intrigued. I just had to read on.  A lady’s voice announced the boarding of our flight. As a coach rider, that means another 5 to 7 minutes before thay will allow me to board, giving me just the right time to finish the Introduction, and convincing myself to wait till I’m seated in the plane before turning to the first chapter.

What do people say about the eat pray love? “It’s what I want to all my girl friends” says Julia Roberts.  “A writer of incandescent talent”, says Annie Proulx.  Elle (the magazine) commented “A word-of-mouth bestseller. As funny as it is wise.”

So true.  I had heard of the book back home in the Philippines, which so many of my girl friends had started to read, but never got to remember to buy it.

“I wish I could have her guts”, said one friend. “Me, too. Perhaps we should go and travel together, ” says another.  “But she did  those things away from her previous life in the city. So, it wouldn’t be the same”, the first retorted. Hmmm.  Funny, that my friends too harbor thoughts of living our present lives and exploring the world by ourselves. Many more women now seem to be more courageous and firm on what they want to do.

The book cover says that over a million copies have been sold worldwide.  That obviously means 5 million readers, excluding the borrowers or pass-on readers.  Wow, that’s a lot of readers.

So as I sat down in my window seat, and belted myself in, I took my book out from my huge purse (aren’t we women so lucky to be allowed to carry a purse almost as huge as our carry-on luggage?) and started to read Chapter 1.  As the plane taxied to the runway, the lady  in the aisle seat across as empty seat took out her own book, looked at me and asked “What chapter are you on?” She lifted her own copy of eat pray love, and smiled.  “I’ve just started with Italy (referring to Chapter 1)”.  “I’m now midway in the second chapter. Started the book yesterday”.  “What”, I thought, “didn’t you have anything else to do?” wishing at the same time that she wouldn’t start giving out details of the previous chapter. Smiling still, she said “I’ll leave you to your reading. It’s really so much fun to read the details yourself, and imagine yourself in her situation.” I smile back in thanks, and dropped my eyes to my book.  It was good to feel affinity with this nice anonymous woman sitting across an empty seat, sharing similar interests and dreams.