Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Yoga

Yoga is not about stretching. The poses seem to be a series
of sophisticated tools to find out all the places one might
be holding tension. (With over 650 muscles in the human
body, there are many places to examine!) The yogi's task is
to release that tension. This is why yoga is not
stretching. For one may stretch in any frame of mind, but
tightness is a symptom of a lack of awareness. To release
tension requires the mind to become consciously aware of the
tension and to struggle to release it. This is primarily an
inner journey, and secondarily a physical one.

In defense of stretching, it clearly has measurable physical
benefits. These are not lost on the yogi. When a yogi
engages in physical exercise, afterwards he physically needs
to stretch the muscles to aid in the removal of waste
products like lactic acid. Clearly the yogi reaps these
benefits. But moreover, the heightened awareness gained by
yoga practice makes releasing the tension in these exercised
muscles easier, deeper and more thorough.

It seems that popular yoga practice of vinyasa is really an
extremely advanced practice, perhaps the height of asana.
Vinyasa seems to take the sophisticated postures of static
yoga and merge them with movement, thus incorporating asana
into everyday action. At a higher form, making movement
itself an art, like dance. But, while it is difficult to
imagine being fully aware of one's body in a particular
asana, how much greater must be one's awareness to be fully
aware while moving between asanas? This is a stage of
advancement unimaginable to me at this time, though is a
noble and beautiful goal.



Sunday, September 11, 2005

Versailles

I've been increasingly involved in the community of the
Unitarian Church in Pittsburgh.
I went to a lovely picnic there after service this morning,
and spoke with many of the members. One in particular told
me a wonderful story, which I relate here.

It was toward the end of the picnic, and I was looking for
a friend to say my goodbyes. I was standing around looking
lost, when an older man in a green T-shirt approached me.
He had a name tag reading John McCarthy, I believe. I
happened to be writing my name down to sign up for a
name tag, so he observed my last name. He started telling me
of his family in Ireland.


I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I was hesitant to get into this
discussion in the first place. There was a particularly
attractive young woman I was eager to speak with before I
left, and I was mostly listening out of politeness at
first. But what followed was one of the best stories I've
heard first hand in my life.


John's grandfather was basically
kicked out of the house (off the farm, actually) in Ireland
for marrying a Scottish woman. They emigrated to the US
and ended up outside Pittsburgh. His grandfather worked
as a plasterer and his mother did laundry for the wealthy
steel magnates in the mansions nearby their more meager
home. His father, the eldest of 4 boys, upon graduation
from elementary school, faced the (parent's) choice of
attending high school or going to work at Kaufmann's, a
department store. His mother told everyone that John Sr.
was going to graduate from high school, get an office job,
and help put the rest of his brothers through college!

After college, John Sr. was drafted into the army to
fight in WWI. He was such a good student in school,
however, that they pulled him off the front lines to be a
stenographer for the officers. He served this position
throughout the war. At the end, ready to go home to his
family in Pittsburgh, an officer approached him asking if he
would remain in the army a few more months. "Why?", he
asked. "We would like you to come to href="http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.html"> Versailles and record
the meetings that will be taking place there. He became
an official stenographer for Woodrow Wilson, Clemenceau,
Orlando and Lloyd George. He remembered Wilson vehemently
objecting to the one-sidedness of the treaty, counseling
compassion instead of revenge. He suggested, in John's
presence, that there would be another war if such a
"treaty" were enforced on the Germans. Indeed.

Walking out of the meeting room, I spotted the following
framed quote from Albert Schweitzer:

"The only ones among you who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to serve."

It is a wonderful place.





An awesome falafel place in Berlin




A great book I read while travelling. In English of course.
I thought it was funny to see it in German.





The new Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

Friday, September 09, 2005

This American Life

My life has been decidedly enriched by the radio show
This American Life.
It's basically a hodgepodge of stories from around the
country, usually on a theme given for the week,
eg. babysitting. It can be profound, ridiculous,
insightful. It is always touching, and consistently leaves
me smiling. Different kinds of smiles, but smiling always.

If you've never heard the show, check out the "Our
favorites" section. "Notes on Camp", "Act V" and
"Babysitting" are all phenomenal. So touching and

PS: I get a "Daily Ray of Hope" email from the Sierra Club.
One the other day was cute:

"The journal Mountain Gazette claims that it is printed on
paper "biodegradable with soy ink so environmentally benign
that, instead of recycling it, you can just pour milk on it
and eat it. The fiber content is guaranteed high."


My next few blogs will have pictures from my time in Europe last month.
This is Berlin at night.