I have these amazing women writer friends who came up with this awesome plan to write concurrent blog posts on what different sections of the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert mean to them. Lovely Francophile Andi penned a take on the EAT section, sexy yogi Julie wrote what PRAY means to her, and marital sex guru Alisa penned a selection on LOVE. Seems like they’ve got the book covered, right?
Wrong. Because they didn’t want to leave me out of the triad (we’re a quad, remember). So, they added a new section, DRINK, which I believe Elizabeth Gilbert might’ve included anyway (except it would have made her title clunky, and she would have had to spend three months in the U.K., Belgium, and Germany drinking beer crafted in pubs. That idea just gave me a total Brewgasm).
So today, each of us has written and posted something about Eat, Pray, Love. And Drink. Come along on our journey and you could win two of Gilbert’s books: Eat, Pray, Love and Committed.
How? Leave a comment on each of the four posts giving us your own take on each subject. Here’s Andi’s post, Julie’s, Alisa’s, and mine is below. When you’ve done that, put your name, email address and URL (if you want) into this form, and you’ll be entered into the drawing to win.
We will use Random.org to select four winners. You may enter up until midnight on May 31 (PST). And that’s Alisa and me in the photo sharing a Brewgasm in New York City last month.
DRINK…deeply
Drink deeply. That saying, of course, is a metaphor for experiencing life—for living deeply.
Which is what the book Eat, Pray, Love conveys—one woman’s experience of living life deeply through those three loaded verbs—eat, pray and love.
Here’s another loaded verb–drink. There’s a whole lot of drink in the book—from wine and espresso in Italy to champagne and beer in Belize. And drink gives me a relevant subject to expound upon (plus the primary three verbs are already taken–and very well so–by my friends).
If I had to choose between coffee and beer, it’d be one of the toughest choices of my life. So, in this post I’m writing about that nectar I refer to as Mommy’s Little Equilibrium Enhancer—beer. Luckily, one beer gives me enough of a care-free buzz to survive hell hour and more.
So what does drinking deeply mean to me? From a literal standpoint, I write a beer column, so drinking and describing craft beer is part of my work. From that perspective, drink supports my family in some small way (OK, very small). Also, beer has become something that I think about, research and obsess over—because I love it and I’m lucky enough to get paid to write about what I love.
From a more metaphorical standpoint, drinking deeply is about opening myself up to new experiences. It’s about accepting people and ideas and adventures that enrich my life.
The literal and the metaphorical mesh uniquely around drinking. Think about it. Drink and friendship, drink and food, drink and sex—they’re inextricably connected for many people.
Most of us have stories of drink—some good, some bad, some intergalactically awesome. But we all have stories.
Because many of us have used that escape, that little bit of care-freeness, to get beyond ourselves and our daily concerns. And that’s OK, as long as that’s all it is. A way to survive hell hour. A time to connect with friends. An accompaniment to amazing food. A way to let go of an inhibition before a sexual encounter.
So, let’s not forget drink. It’s often part of some of our most important moments—our graduations, our weddings, and yes, our break-ups. It also concurs with some of our lightest moments—our quiet after dinner sunsets, our time with dear friends, and our afternoons reading on the beach.
Hmmmm. Any of you want to share a drink with me?
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Drinking is desire directed towards the consumable for the purpose of bliss.
I think I love you, napkindad.
I gave up coffee last month and alcoholic beverages over a year ago. I am always thirsty which can lead to harmful doses if I drink anything but water.
I am having much more fun now that I don’t need a drink to enjoy life/relax/spend time with my family. My digestion has improved, headaches have disappeared, and I face more problems head on intending to solve them rather than avoid them.
As long as I can drink ice cold water, I’ll raise a glass with you.
I gave up drinking but remember fondly stories told and lives shared over a pint of guinness.
You are my last stop on this party train called the Eat, Love, Pray and Drink express. It’s not random nor because your section was not in the book title, it’s because I don’t drink and wasn’t sure I’d have anything to add to this section.
What a delightful surprise to find your post is not about drinking at all. Okay, so it is a little about drinking, but it’s not all about drinking. It’s mostly about really living life.
In that respect it is the perfect capstone to this morning’s journey through eating, praying and loving. In each of these areas I think life is more enriching when we open ourselves to new ideas and particularly, to new experiences.
My most fulfilling prayers are when I completely abandon my desires and really just try to feel what it’s like to communicate with deity.
My most fulfilling moments of love are when I stop trying to satisfy my own needs and try instead to fill my lover’s cup.
My most fulfilling meals have come from trying something new and deepening my relationship with the food I’m consuming.
My life is not exemplary, nor should anyone look to me as a guide, but in terms of personal satisfaction I’ve had some pretty amazing experiences in life by being less judgmental, seeking out the unusual and occasionally trying something scary.
I dont drink much, I am a super light weight and have only gotten drunk once. One beer or drink makes me tipsy and puts me in a good, relaxed mood. For my ex-husband, he had no control over drinking, he did not understand moderation. I used drinking for relaxation, and he used it as a coping mechanism.
Nectar of the Gods… i dont find use in praying to anything. should be eat. drink. love. should probably be eat. drink. love is implied with both.
that said a REALLY good beer [like belgian, which no one else can touch the complexity they put out] is euphoric. i could give up eating if food wasnt sooo tasty when done right, plus there is the ceremony of preparing it. a great beer is far less expensive than a great wine, sometimes a great liquor. the most pricey i have had is Scaldis @ $45 a bottle [750mL]. its more relaxing buzz than the other types as well.
now i want a nice beer, its 5:30 somewhere right?
We only drink micro beers at our house. My husband is a big hop head and has converted me.
We drink deeply of good bitter beers and appreciate the complexities, rather than settling for the latest foamy water the big breweries are putting out.
In life, this can translate to making your experiences more about savoring and enjoying something unique to your own heart, and not worrying about what corporate America, societal demands or peer groups feel is important, then rushing to the next purchase, event, or fad.
It’s much better to know that the beer you are drinking is made by someone (a real person) who cares and was really present during the brewing; the energy survives and nourishes in a way that lifts us all.
And I love adding “drink” to the Eat, Pray, Love trifecta!
Say hi to my beloved Asheville for me.
Asheville and our ten amazing microbreweries say “hi” back.
It’s always beer thirty somewhere, Barrett.
Comfort.
Eat, pray, love, drink. We do them all most intensely when we need to comfort or to be comforted. When we need to be the real “us”, not the put on, facade, 9 to 5 “us” that is consumed by the modern world and it’s daily trivialities that we prioritize so poorly. Really. When’s the last time you enjoyed a second beer at a business lunch because it was just that good, or mopped the juice from the steak with a piece of bread because you couldn’t bear to leave a drop behind? I’m talking more about the real “us” that shines through in times of true joy, times of sharing, of celebration, elation, desperation, loneliness and sorrow. The real person that defines us in the in they eyes of those who we share our most intimate relationships with. The us that we call on when we are caught in the current of real life. I don’t think throwing drink in the mix with Eat, Pray and Love is too far off base. All of them are useful spiritually and physically. When relied on alone or to excess, they can all cause us problems.
Consider drink. Many of us have had one to “take the edge off”. I’m painfully shy in purely social settings. I do very well in professional social settings and can hold my own in a good conversation once started but, if the occasion is purely about making connections with other people, I struggle a little at times. You’ll often find me at the corner table wishing I were that guy. You know the one. The guy that can cause a room to fall silent with interest or explode with excitement just because he’s there. The guy that can control a room from across a room. The guy who everyone likes to be around. The Dos Equis guy. I’m not that guy. But I can be, at times.
Put a good beer in my hands, and I start to feel the comfort level rise. It isn’t even just the inhibition lowering effects of the active ingredient. It’s the connection that I now have to other people in the room. Drink is starting point for a conversation in a glass, especially if it isn’t yellow water in a red plastic cup. A conversation can start about an inanimate object and open doors to other topics and to connections. The real me peeks out and sometimes speaks up. I’m still no Dos Equis guy, but people often like the real me. I’m a lot more comfortable sharing the real me when I’m doing it with someone who shares a common bond that I can identify without reading their resume. What’s in the glass can open things up as it warms us and comforts us. Once we are comfortable, then we can begin to drink in life beyond the glass, experience fully, share it with others, connect with our life and the people in it. Not because of the alcohol so much as because of the comfort the drink provides.
Within reason, it’s no different than the potato salad at the graduation parties or the cake at the weddings we’ll all attend for the next few months. Sit us all down at a table with nothing except those cruddy little mints and it’s going to be a long evening. Throw a plate of ribs and some potato salad out, tap some beer worthy of discussion, and suddenly people begin to find a comfort level. Conversations that begin in a stilted fashion settle to a dull roar. Connections are made or rekindled. The room comes to life. Life happens.
When I need comfort, sometimes I eat. When I need a connection to something higher, sometimes I pray. When I need the support of human connection, I turn first to those that I love. When I want to live a little, I have a beer. I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I drink it in.
Ok too much coffee can lead to breast cysts in women, My pups are already like a bad batch of mashed potatoes so I limit myself to one (albiet heafty) cup a day. Hard alcohol left me in some very precarious places in my college years with guys I didn’t even know so now it is beer. Lagers to be more precise. I am the proud member of the buggers club at the Ships Inn ( A micro brewery) in Milford, NJ. Everywhere I go I take pictures of interesting pubs, in Ireland, Anguilla, Maine, the Chesepeake wherever I find them. I started drinking beer when I was pregnant with my first child. Dark Lagers, great for producing milk they say. Don’t know if it is true and I didn’t care, that was my story and I’m sticking to it.
Indeed, Joanne. Guinness is great for lactation.
Although that’s bad news about the coffee. Damn.
Well-spun, Bruce. The Dos Equis guy’s a marketing ploy anyway. No one really wants to hang with him for more than a few minutes.
Drink… I don’t consume alcoholic beverages because I am the child of an (non reformed) alcoholic.
I tasted my first (home brewed) beer at the age of five, along with the first time experiencing the kick of a pistol knocking me backward onto my rear. My father believe in acclimating us to real life early on.
To this day, I cannot stand the taste or smell of beer.
I’ve had a few mixed drinks over the years and even a few shots of patron. It’s never been a good experience for me.
As an adult, I’ve decided to explore the wide world of wine… after all, I live in Oregon’s wine country. I’m praying this turns out to be a period of happy growth.
So many types of alcohol give me migraines so I’ve become quite discerning in touches my pallet.
So all I’m prepared too explore is Pinot Grigio which is created here on Vancouver Island, the bite of a good 12 year old scotch and any good, dark, full bodied rum.
But my favorite? The smell of a malty dark brown ale on my husband’s breath and the taste of it on his lips, tongue and mouth when he kisses me.
Oh, I’m with you Maureen. Beer breath is sexy. Men who’ve been drinking beer always smell like oranges to me.
My first experience with alcohol was with beer. My grandpa used to give my sister and I a small cup when he fished, it was golden heaven. Then as I passed through my teen and college years I tried, and got miserably sick, on mixed drinks. It wasn’t really until I was into my 30′s that I found an appreciation for a good beer and I think that is representative of my life as well. As I age, I become wiser, I know what I really like, what tastes good, and what makes me feel good and often times a good beer, ale or lager (and sometimes a glass of good red wine or champagne) really completes a day or a meal!
I keep trying to give up Dr. Pepper but have this obsession with the bubbles. Bubbles make any drink for me fantasticorgasmic. Unfortunately the sugar in soda makes me fatter (I am fat enough don’t need more), the chemicals in diet sodas give me headaches and the caffeine makes me jittery.
The love of my life is also the hate of my life.
In honor of this being my first comment I’m leaving on Brewgasm and my, now, following of Brewgasm, I just opened a lovely Belgian Wheat Beer (from Belgium!) called Wittekerke. And it’s only 2:00 in the afternoon!
Looking forward to lots of brewgasms as a follower
Laurie,
You have excellent taste in Brewgasms! Welcome.
Carib, my new favorite. Had it in Anguilla a couple weeks ago, don’t know if I’ll find it here. Usually I like darker lagers but I will try it with Guiness in a black and tan if I can find it.
This Eat, Pray, Love collaboration has been such a fun way to find new blogs. Thanks for inviting us all to your party!
You had me at: “From a more metaphorical standpoint, drinking deeply is about opening myself up to new experiences. It’s about accepting people and ideas and adventures that enrich my life.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I got sober about 5 years ago and since then have had MULTIPLE opportunities to open myself up to new experiences! For me, drinking in life without drinking in my life has been quite an adventure. Sobriety has lead me down a path littered with people and ideas that I never would have expected to enjoy. Who would have imagined?
I’ll happily raise my glass to an adventurous life with you! We’ll just have to make mine unleaded…
Interesting how many of the comments are from non or almost non drinkers. Alcohol definitely gets in my way if I let it and I have really cut down lately. I have found however the new low carb beers really good as I can have a nice, long, cold (non-sweet) drink at the end of a day and it doesn’t fuzz up my brain and send me to sleep.
I love beer. LOVE. When I was about 4, my dad drank {shudder} Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. My nickname was Keek, and he used to say, “Hey Keek! Go get me a fooch.” Now I REALLY hope that’s not a negatively connotated word in any way….I have no idea where he got it, so if it means something awful, I’m terribly sorry!!
Anywho…I always used to open it for him (pretty cool for a 4 year old!) and take a sip, which everyone thought was “cute.” Ever though it was PBR, I seriously got a taste for it. NOTHING is better when you’re super hot in the summer and you pop open an ice cold bottle of brew. Emmmm. Now that I’m on a buttload of medication I don’t drink much, but hey, once in a while….right? : )
For beer I’d have to say the best I’ve had is the Paulaner Münchner Dunkel. Almost worth taking a trip to have it again.
When you’re in a long term toxic relationship, you never realize how much it affects you when you’re in it. Once it’s over and you feel that weight lift, there’s a real sense of freedom that rushes back. It gives “drinking in all that life has to offer” a whole new meaning.