Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 141

SOAT in Spain!

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So happy!! thanks!!

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SHE DOESN'T REALIZE SHE'S KILLING ME BY POSTING THIS PHOTO OF GELATO IN SICILY ON MY PAGE!!

(but i forgive her. as long as she ate every damn bite of it.)

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Hi Elizabeth. It has been years since I read EPL and am about to embark on TSOAT. I am currently in Sicily and your thoughts about eating in Italy came to mind. I too am not out to be obese or to drown my sorrows in food but I will enjoy and savour the gifts to the world this country offers…guilt free !

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Wow! SOAT at Victoria Falls, in Africa!

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My friend Caryn and I were up on a press trip at Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe last week, and both of us had a copy of your book for our reading pleasure. Thanks, @[227291194019670:274:Elizabeth Gilbert]!

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SOAT in the Philippines…I want to go to there!

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SOAT in between islands in the Philippines. Traveling from Bacolod to Iloilo.

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Question of the day: HOW ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR TALENT?

A friend of this page just sent me this quote today, which I love, because I've been thinking (and speaking a lot) lately about the idea of the word TALENT.

The word "talent" comes to us from the ancient Greek word for a sum, a balance, or a weight. In the Roman empire, a talent was a unit of currency. You were paid, in other words with a certain amount of talent — your salary, your allotment, your share.

And so it is with our creative or intellectual or physical or emotional gifts, whatever they may be. We are ALL paid in some kind of talent or another when we arrive here on earth — a different sort of talent for all, and a different amount of talent for all. Some of us get a few coins; some of us get a sack of gold. But everyone gets something. What you then do with your talent is entirely up to you. You can turn your few coins into a fortune, or you can blow your sack of gold on booze and drugs and hookers and guns (so to speak). You can spend it all carefully, or invest it wisely, or squander it foolishly, or hand over your talent to another person for them to spend on your behalf. Worst of all, I think, you can fearfully bury your talent in a jar in your garden — hoarding it forever, because you're afraid of touching it.

So what are you spending your talent on?

And how do you get the courage and discretion to spend it in the wisest and most generative and beneficial way?

Do you have any stories of misspent, or properly spent, talents?

Remember, too, that the original definition of the word is "a weight". I think this is particularly important to keep in mind, because any talent which do you do put to use BECOMES A WEIGHT. It will burden you, and trouble you, and sit heavily upon your shoulders until you shed that weight…by using it.

And as with money, you can't take your talent with you when you go.

So maybe it's time to spend a little?

What do you guys think?

Be brave,
LG

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SOAT in Indiana!

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Finally! Getting to read The Signature of All things in Camby, IN! Thank you @[227291194019670:274:Elizabeth Gilbert]!

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One SOAT and Two Very Large Dogs!

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SOAT in Connecticut with Chief and Acadia They are very excited for anything that will get me to snuggle in bed for a day!

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There once was a SOAT from Nantucket…

(Sorry, Danielle — I couldn't resist!!!! I'm so happy you're enjoying it!)

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Had the absolute pleasure meeting you in Fairfield CT and now I am sitting on a dock in my happy place, Nantucket MA. Perfect read for my vacation.

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OH GOD…here's one from the vaults!

A friend of this page just dug up these very incriminating photos and sent them along…

More than a decade ago, when I was still a staff writer for GQ magazine, I wrote a story about the week I spent disguised as a man, wandering around the streets of NYC, trying to see how the other 50.2% live.

My guy name was "Luke Gilbert"…and there I am (in a haircut that my friend Rayya gave me, and in a photo by the great Mary Ellen Mark.)

It was a rather interesting week, needless to say. I didn't love being a man (I felt emotionally and physically locked up in my fake maleness) but I did love the experience, and I LOVED when the guy at the Air Force recruiting station in the center of Times Square told me to enlist so I could become a fighter pilot "punch some holes in the sky, dude!"

Sadly, I can't find the actual article anywhere online, but I can tell you that during that entire week I did sport, in my pants, a condom stuffed with birdseed, in order to give me the appropriate…er…HEFT.

Also, I braved the men's room at Shea Stadium during a ball game, and never got caught.

Ah, youth….

Lots of love,
Luke/Liz

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A sweet story — SOAT saves the baby mosses!

My friend Lindsay sent me this photo, which her mother in Virginia sent to her the other day. Apparently, Lindsay's mom had recently hired a landscaper to come "tear out all that moss" in her backyard and replace it with lawn…but after reading "The Signature of All Things", she was unable to do it, having now fallen in love with the idea that moss beds are tiny, magnificent forests of their own.

So the gorgeous moss was saved, and the book had its portrait taken in the lush green natural carpet, as a tribute.

Hooray, Lindsay's mom!

Alma would be so pleased…

LG

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