I just saw Nora Ephron’s “Julie and Julia.” I was charmed and delighted by Meryl Streep’s portrayal of the cooking icon, Julia Child. But even more so, I was impressed with Julia Child: her fearlessness, her egalitarian nature, her global outlook, her expressiveness, her joy, her sense of humor, her disregard for convention, her determination, her hearty appetites, her love-soaked marriage, her self-directed life… I could go on and on.
From an interview that Streep did in the U.K.
This is what Streep had to say about the woman she portrays, “Julia’s approach to her day was one of energy and appetite and a blanket determination not to let troubles get you down. It’s a great quality and she really had it… When you talk about passion, Julia Child just didn’t have it for her husband or cooking; she had a passion for living. What was compelling about her was her joie de vivre and her unwillingness to be bogged down in negativity. She loved being alive and that’s inspirational in itself.”
Why and how was this six foot two inch, far-from-pretty, diplomat’s wife so in love with life? I believe she was for several reasons, not the least of which is that she was a success. But she was a success at life and love as well as cooking and writing because she shared several of the personality traits of the psychologically healthiest human beings. I touched on some of them above, but here’s a more explicit list:
1. She and Paul were global not national or provincial in outlook
2. She treated everyone with a healthy dose of respect, and idolized no one
3. She was comfortable, even excited with the unknown
4. She was a good animal with hearty, shameless (in the good way) appetites
5. She recognized the reality of all situations (remember her comment to her sister as they gazed at themselves dressed up for dinner!)
6. Her light-hearted and non-hostile sense of humor
7. She and Paul’s disregard for 1950’s convention, such as McArthyism and professional limitations on women
8. Her blurt-it-out expressiveness
9. Her deep, enduring love affair with Paul, her husband
10. Her fresh appreciation for simpler things
11. Her joy
11. Her joy
These are not complicated, God-given or DNA infused qualities. These are traits that you and I can develop. I'm not going to get into tips and techniques on how to develop these traits here -- that's part of other blog postings and a book I'm working on.
What I want to get across in this short essay is that you and everyone should be thinking, feeling, behaving, and most of all being more like a Child -- Julia Child!
Cheers from Sonoma,
Or as Julia might have said, “Bon Appetit for Life!”
Donald
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