Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert

I read this book in a little under two weeks. It’s really a quick, easy, and joyful read. This is a totally different book from Eat Pray Love or Committed. I think she was trying to inspire people to create cool shit not, even if it never makes you any money. And I think that’s awesome.

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I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging “please, please, please, let me win the lottery.” Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says “my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket.”

My office manager sent out an email to the office last night asking if we wanted to pool our money to buy our chances at winning tonight’s megalotto (I think it’s $550 million?). I’ve never played the lottery (except if you count when I was 7 and used to convince the guys at 7-11 to sell me those scratch-off BINGO cards) and I think it’s usually a waste (and by usually, I mean always) and I hate wasting my money.

But how stupid would I feel if one of our (now) 108 chances won and I hadn’t put in my $10? Yeah, I’d feel like a jackass. So, as long as I’m one of 18 people who can feel either really, really, really happy, or like a wasteful dope, I’m mostly OK with putting my money down.

So, for this night, I feel the above quote from Eat, Pray, Love is highly relevant. You have to play to win. That being said: I’m expecting to wake up tomorrow and still be mostly-broke. 

Lastly: May the odds be ever in your favor.

I read this book two years ago so I didn’t remember specifics but I do remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it and I was very excited to see what they did with the film adaptation.  

It was nearly three hours long but it felt like it was maybe an hour-forty-five.   I think Julia Roberts did a fantastic job with the role and I thought the screen writers did a great job with writing a script that was true to the book – except for the end.  I don’t remember there being a dramatic refusal-of-boat-ride at the end and Liz pushing Felipe away right before she left.  Am I not remembering things correctly?  

The film made me want to re-read the book again, do more yoga than I already do, and start meditating.  It also made me kind of want to pick up everything and go away, or at least go on a weekend yoga retreat.  

This is definitely a feel-good movie, and certainly worth a viewing, especially for women.