Elizabeth Gilbert on Marriage
I keep discovering these writers I should have already known about. My latest discovery of this type is Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia, a wildly successful memoir that tells the story of a year-long series of travels the author went on immediately following a very painful divorce. Now that I know about Gilbert and her story of self-discovery, set in three countries and on two continents, I’ve put it on my 2010 reading list.
The video I’ve chosen to blog, though, is Gilbert discussing her most recent book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. And when I say “most recent,” I mean it. Her latest was released just a few days ago.
I was attracted to the video because it shows Gilbert saying something that many today need to hear. She makes an impassioned case that far too many Americans (whom she accuses, and rightfully so, as having impossibly unrealistic expectations of marriage) end up disappointed after tying the knot because they are in love with the idea of being in love. Marriage, on the other hand, is an “ancient institution” that thrives when the participants think pragmatically and are willing to work together toward “creating a future.”
Gilbert has many more interesting things to say about romantic love, companionship, and marriage, but I’ll let her speak for herself.
