Today is a freezing day. I think the high in New York City is in the thirties. We are moving tomorrow. Truthfully, the whole idea of a blog intimidates me, partly because I think that the things in my life that happen are not, on the whole, worthy of an entire space on the internet-an entire web address, an entire title.
OH let me explain the title first and foremost. Very key. If any readers that are reading this blog have ever read "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, they do not need any explanation whatsoever. The title is quite obvious. The book itself is about a woman going through a painful divorce that decides she will travel for a full year in three different places:
1) Italy, Rome to be exact. Here she explores pleasure (learning Italian for no good reason, eating amazing food..)
2) India. She studies at an Ashram where her "Guru" is from. She was intending to stay there for only part of her time in India, but winds up staying the whole time.
3) Indonesia, Bali to be exact. Here, she comes back to study with a medicine man that she met a few years prior on a previous trip. He prophesied that she would come back and teach him English.
The book is not able to be captured by my lame summaries, it has to be read. I am finishing my second read-- and I believe I will go for a third at some point. Attraversiamo winds up being Gilbert's favorite word in Italian that she learns while in Italy.
It all goes a little something like this...
"So far, though, my favorite thing to say in all of Italian is a simple, common word: Attraversiamo.
It means, 'Let's Cross Over.' Friends say it to each other constantly when they're walking down the sidewalk and have decided it's time to switch to the other side of the street. Which is to say, this is literally a pedestrian word. Nothing special about it. Still, for some reason, it goes right through me. The first time Giovanni said it to me, we were walking near the Colosseum. I suddenly heard him speak that beautiful word and I stopped dead, demanding, 'What does that mean? What did you just say?'
'Attraversiamo.'
He couldn't understand why I liked it so much. Let's cross the street? But to my ear, it's the perfect combination of Italian sounds. The wistful ah of introduction, the rolling trill, the soothing s....."
The quote about Attraversiamo goes on for quite some time, so I will spare you. It is, case and point, a way for the author to express her emotions about a transition.
This, folks, is the part that is about me. I haven't spent time living in Rome, nor can I speak a word of Italian (aside from the usual annoying Americanized words, like Bella, Ciao, and Grazie! I am in transition. Whatever that means.
I just moved to a new apartment. I am getting married. I am finishing one degree and beginning another. I am at a new job.
The list continues.
What is it about me, or maybe about humans in general that has us seek out different things constantly? It is not like anyone gets up this morning and says to themselves "I hope today is EXACTLY like yesterday. That would be superb."
