A Fair Trade Book
Title: Eat Mangoes Naked
Title: Eat Mangoes Naked
Date: 2001
Publisher: Fireside
Length: 208 pages of graphics and calligraphy, many in color
Quote: “Seek out pleasure and lightly scoop it up.”
This is actually a book of consolation for people in difficult situations, but along with the therapist-approved thoughts Sark offers hints of harmless hedonism that really might cheer up a person facing “illness, the periodontist, or aging and mortality.”
Don’t worry; despite a certain delight in deliberate silliness, this book does not advocate living for pleasure alone. It advocates enjoying small, innocent pleasures: “butterflies dancing in the sun, combing and kissing my cat, listening to my brother on my voice mail, playing Zydeco music from New Orleans as I change the sheets.” It also advocates the pleasure of giving pleasure to others: “complimenting a woman in my corner store, telling her she smelled good...giving two friends thick white robes to wear while using my hot tub...sending flowers to my brother...”
“Here are some things to try: Write on your walls with multicolored chalk. (You can always paint it over later.)...Put your pillows on the other end of the bed and pull the covers around you from the end of the bed. Watch videotapes you’ve never watched and write a poem afterwards. Borrow music that you’ve never heard of from the library...Make up words for a web sight and see what you get...Get a plant....Read poetry loudly in your pajamas. Give away. Set objects free! They want to get out. Circulate the objects in your home...Thank your toilet. O.K., I just put that in to see if you were listening, although it wouldn’t be a bad idea. It just sounds funny.”
Underneath the ideas that just sound fun and funny is a fundamental belief that people can live through painful times without forming chronic serotonin deficiencies, as long as we let ourselves experience moments of pleasure along with pain. Works for me. Cheaper and safer than pills, anyway. And if you get stuck, you can even call Sark and leave her an appreciative voice mail.
It looks from here as if Sark is the primary supplier of her books on Amazon, anyway...however, to buy Eat Mangoes Naked as a Fair Trade Books, send $5 for the book + $5 for shipping to salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com. Shipping charges are per package, and although this is a slightly oversized book, you can probably fit one or two more books into the package.
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