Paris is the WORD!

As I had previously mentioned, I am struggling through Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat, Pray, Love. I had seen then movie starring Julia Roberts a while ago and after viewing, agreed that it appeared to be a picture postcard of the three countries mentioned and not much else. However, I did also realize that I wanted to give her words a chance and see where it takes me. I bought the book and have not been let down.

This book is one of those that I have found that I put down and pick up at leisure and can only handle in small doses. I am also realizing that this is the perfect pace for understanding that I can only handle small doses of and my life seems to be moving in parallel to its words and findings.

The topic for today: The word of the city.

Gilbert states: "The secret to understanding a city and it's people is to learn the word on the street. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets at any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever the majority thought may be- that is the word of the city. If you find that your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you really don't belong there." I found this thought process to be intriguing on many levels and explains a great deal to my psyche.

In reflection time on the plane ride back from my adventure, I found that what Paris seems to be, in considering what it's describing words would be, I feel, as follows: fast-paced, pretentious attitude, frustration and historical revolutions. One would think that it would be centered around romance and adoration, of which there was plenty of PDA and romance on the streets of this lovely city, of which I will write more soon, however these themes served as secondary thought processes it seems. Paris is a city of motion and if you are idly standing by, prepare to get pushed to the side and Frenchly put in your place.

As many of you know, none of these words fit into my own personality and so of course, I did not fit into Paris's groove. The city is beautiful and filled with history and is a lovely place to visit...but that was pretty much it. Once you have experienced everything within its streets, the pretense is still apparent and does not jive with me on a deeper level and so will never want to live there on a longer basis... not that I am looking, mind you. :)

I believe this section of Eat, Pray, Love to be profanely truthful on a great deal of levels. I did not feel like I could jive with what my initial beliefs were of what I had heard about the city and what I was observing. It kinda saddened me by the time we were on the night train to Barcelona, ending our stay in a city that I had such high hopes for. Perhaps it was the idea of "Romanticism" I had spoke of earlier in a blog post? I had built up this city to impossible standards and how can any city live to those standards with all it has going on with its own undercurrents?

What is the word of your city? Does it "jive" with what your own word is? I would be intrigued to find out this from each of you...