One Word

I've recently been reading and long-distance-book-clubbing Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. You may have seen 4 million copies of this book prominently displayed in the front of your local large chain bookstore since the author went on Oprah. Although this is not at all the type of book I would usually pick up for myself, one of my friends saw the Oprah interview, told me about it, and we decided to read it together. And, a little surprisingly, I've really enjoyed it so far.

The basic idea is that the author goes through a rough divorce and a minor mental breakdown and realizes when it's all over that she's unhappy and has the means and desire to basically take a year off. She spends 4 months in Italy eating pasta, eating pastries, drinking cappuccinos, eating delicious cheeses, and gaining a lot of weight, and she's delighted by it. Then she spends 4 months in India at an ashram studying yoga, practicing meditation, regaining self-confidence, and getting her spiritual life in order again. This is as far as I've read, but in the final section she travels to Indonesia to live with a monk or something.

Throughout the book she has a lot of interesting insights and presents them with an unapologetic but not preachy voice. In Rome, she picks up the idea of finding one word to describe a person or place. Here's the dialogue, picking up where the author is talking with an Italian friend and realizing that, as much as she loves Rome, she's really just a tourist:

Giulio said, "Maybe you and Rome just have different words."
"What do you mean?"
He said, "Don't you know that the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn--what is the word of the street?"
Then he went on to explain, in a mixture of English, Italian and hand gestures, that every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the street of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be--that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there.
"What's Rome's word?" I asked.
"SEX," he announced.
"But isn't that a stereotype about Rome?"
"No."
"But surely there are some people in Rome thinking about other things than sex?"
Giulio insisted: "No. All of them, all day, all they are thinking about is SEX."
"Even over at the Vatican?"
"That's different. The Vatican isn't part of Rome. They have a different word over there. Their word is POWER."
"You'd think it would be FAITH."
"It's POWER," he repeated. "Trust me. But the word in Rome--it's SEX."
...
Giulio asked, "What's the word in New York City?"
I thought about this for a moment, then decided. "It's a verb, of course. I think it's ACHIEVE."
(Which is subtly but significantly different from the word in Los Angeles, I believe, which is also a verb: SUCCEED. Later, I will share this whole theory with my Swedish friend Sofie, and she will offer her opinion that the word on the streets of Stockholm is CONFORM, which depresses both of us.)
I asked Giulio, "What's the word in Naples?" He knows the south of Italy well.
"FIGHT," he decides.

I've talked with a few people about this. My friend who's reading this with me decided her word is create, as she's constantly creating creative creations, if you will. My word is zest, as I try to always look at life with passion, excitement, and, well, zest. Talking with another DC-dweller, we decided DC's word is politics, but in a way that reflects more than what happens on Capitol Hill. In DC, politics invades the lives of everyone who lives there on many levels. I know several people who, after leaving a job on bad terms, were reminded of what a "small town" Washington is. Networking is king, lasting friendships are an afterthought.

I've realized that zest does not fit well with politics, and this is fine, because a lot of other people fit better with DC and I'm sure a lot of cities fit better with me. Since I've only been in Columbus for 24 hours so far, I can't choose it's word yet-- I think you have to live some place for at least two years before you know it well enough to pick a word for it.

What about your word? or the word for some of the places you've lived? Or for people you know? How does your word fit with the place you are now? And does this all mean anything?