No, Not me. I am not over much these days. But Shirley MacLaine’s latest book is titled I’m Over All That. It is a book of very short chapters discussing all of the things she is over now she is approximately 80 years old.
Mainly she is over relationships. She had a lot of love affairs during her life even though she was with her husband for 30 years. She said they had a fairly open relationship. She is not over her strong belief in reincarnation or UFO’s. The government continues to cover up their existence according to her. She drops a lot of names in this book as well. Actors, actresses and politicians of high standing whom she had affairs with. She was a busy woman.
Let’s back up a bit. When I was living in Ft. Myers Florida in my 20’s and 30’s I went through a real New Age phase. I think all American women in my age group seemed to flirt with the ideas. Past life regressions, reincarnation, astrology, chakras acting up and all manner of ideas we hadn’t grown up with in our middle class midwest upbringing during our school years.
However I am “Over All That” now and have been for a long time. I read all of Shirley MacLaine’s books. Out On A Limb, Don’t Fall Off the Mountain, Dancing in the Light. Then I just woke up one day and thought, “This is all rubbish. I don’t believe any of it.” I moved on and once I began living in Australia in my late 30’s I didn’t think of it anymore. Also Australians didn’t seem to have any time for any of that stuff compared to Americans.
I gave up reading anything by her. However I continue to love her as an actress and have seen many films she has starred in going all the way back to The Apartment with her and Jack Lemmon. I enjoyed seeing her in films as the cranky middle aged to older person in various films. It made me laugh. She was a very talented dancer as well.
Now more than 35 to 40 years later I saw this book on the library shelf. I knew she would be about 80 years old and wondered if she still believed all of that stuff. I read it in a couple of days and sure enough she does. Life is one big spiritual journey to her. She can find meaning in a old pork chop.
She enjoys animals around her more than people which I can relate to quite a bit. She doesn’t need the love relationships with men anymore. She does need her close women friends which I can also relate to.
She likes her own company and the comforts of her home too which I also enjoy. But then she travels down the path towards her future lives and I follow my path until I simply finish this life and don’t think beyond that.
One thing I have always found funny about those reincarnation beliefs is that people who do believe in it always talk about their past lives as a Queen or a Princess or someone well known in Egypt. They are never the poor shopkeeper in India or St Louis. There have been billions and billions of people who walked the earth at one time but if you are reincarnated you only seem to believe you were from a royal family somewhere several centuries ago. Why would you remember fishing on the banks of the Mississippi in the early 1800’s and sleeping in a shack? Where are all these people now? Did they reincarnate too? Really. Are we all just recycled? It might be a fun idea but let’s face it, life can be long enough and tough enough, why would one want to start over and do it all again. It takes 60 years to get stuff right and finally relax and maybe enjoy it for 20 or 30 years then you’re gone.
Anyway, the book was interesting in that I got to think about the changes in both Shirley and myself. I’ll let her go now and hope she has a long life and enjoys her next millennium and I’ll go on admiring other people and books about them. I’ll still cuddle with my animals though. Life really is short.
I love travel books about walking across the world, bicycling or motorbiking. I live vicariously through the authors and feel every step they take. I picked this book up a few months ago at a local independent bookshop because I fell in love with the cover. It is a beautiful book to look at. I thought Mr. Penguin would enjoy reading it because it takes place in Central America and Mexico which is an area he has always been interested in. But as it goes, when one buys a book for another, it was not his mood at the moment and it sat unread on the shelf until I picked it up.
Mr. Wood is an excellent writer. This journey details a great deal of history of the eight countries travelled. There are some real danger spots in the Darien and very much of the book is extremely suspenseful. The reader really wonders if they will make it or not. I doubt the book would have been published had they not succeeded but I was never completely certain.
track. I will warn readers- if you have a lot to do around the house, don’t pick up this book as you won’t be able to move until it is finished and nothing else will get done.
Travellin' Penguin 