Sunday, August 22, 2010

Eat, Pray, Love

I have not seen the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love," and I have read just a chapter of the book. Based on the spoilers I read (yes, I read ahead to see if I'd actually finish the book in time to go see the movie),  I'm about to go off on my conclusion.
Scenario: happily married woman in her dream New York house with a great husband. Sounds like something we all want, right? Not this main character. Oh no, she is selfish enough to want her desires fulfilled and divorces her charming husband who bought the house so they could start a family. It goes on from there. She has an affair THEN divorces him. First off, as a Christian woman who just wants to find a Mr. Right that I can love and be with till death, I have a major problem with this movie. The Bible doesn't tell women to just up and leave your husband for your internal happiness. If you thought you'd be miserable, why did you get married in the first place? I also find it horribly self-absorbing. "I'm not happy with the fact that I have my ideal life, so I'm going to call it quits and go all over the world to discover other countries with my girlfriends and sail off in the sunset with a man named Felipe that I'll eventually marry and leave because I'm not satisfied with my life." <- main thing I got from the story.
I know I'm coming down rather hard on the movie and book, and granted, I haven't finished reading the book (nor do I really care to anyways since looking at spoilers), but I need some amens here.
When you get married, you are giving yourself to that other person. You're saying you love them enough to do what they want and vice versa. You serve each other and spend time together. You're supposed to fall more in love as the marriage progresses, raise children together, dress Sally and Billy for church and go on family picnics. You're supposed to buy them frou frou clothing and take Billy to baseball practice while Sally goes to dance lessons. As the kids get older, you take them to school and make them cute lunches with sweet notes inside. You drop them a block away from school when they're embarassed in their early teenage years. You stay up for them while they go out with friends- or you have date night with your spouse. It's not all-about-me anymore. It's about "us."
I don't know if I'll be able to finish the book simply because it breaks my heart to read a story of a woman who leaves her spouse to find her inner desires and self with her friends, when one of her friends is opposed to the divorce. Heck, her husband begs her not to do this!
Okay so I'm getting off my soap box. I felt strongly opposed to this movie, and maybe I will finish the book and like it. When I get married, I plan to only do it once to a godly guy who puts Christ first in everything.

No comments:

Post a Comment