Eat, pray, dance

Author Elizabeth Gilbert on how to love and groove in these uncertain times

- SNEHA BHURA

That day in November 2016 when Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the US was a beautiful one. At least that is what American author Elizabeth Gilbert and her partner Rayya Elias had initially thought.

A couple of months ago, Gilbert, in a Facebook post titled ‘Me & Rayya’, had publicly declared her feelings for her Syrian best-friend. Their relationship had ended Gilbert’s marriage to businessman José Nunes, who was the ‘Love’ in her 2006 best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Elias had been undergoing treatment for pancreatic and liver cancer; by November 2016, she had given up chemotherapy. Gilbert’s love for another woman had become a talking point, but her feelings for her dear friend who was terminally ill with cancer was real. “I am exactly where I need to be—the only place I can be,” Gilbert had written then.

But on that election day in New York, everyone who was hoping that America would have its first female president was happy and excited. Gilbert and Elias went to vote, had lunch, and came home giddy with anticipation. It was only in the night, while watching the results on TV, that the atmosphere changed. There was astonishment and disbelief as Trump’s victory became imminent. Gilbert switched off the TV and took her partner out for a walk. When they came back, the couple lit some candles and prayed. Suddenly, Elias stood up in the middle of the bedroom, shook her fist at the sky, and angrily took God to task. “F***ing seriously?” Elias raged. “First you give me cancer and now this? Really, this is your plan? I’m gonna die while Donald Trump is the president?”