Yoga (Again)

Last night we tried yoga for the first time, and God help us, we liked it.  We were ready to assume the corpse pose on the sofa while Mrs. UF (ex) did her yoga when the imp of the perverse struck and we thought, Why not give it a go?  So we did.  And it was fun, like the Wii "Dancing with Abba" we tried when we were at our sister's house for the New Year. 

Now, of course, we're confounded.  We have staked our entire reputation on hating yoga and now to turn around and say we like it, well, it's cause for much moral confusion.  What if something similar happens vis a vis our relationship with Sting?  What if we suddenly find ourselves singing along with "Living in the Material World"? Should we surrender to it? Or set ourselves on fire, the way a righteous Buddhist monk would do?   

And who knows whether yoga isn't just the tip of the proverbial Titanic sinker?  What if we one day develop a yen for a neti pot?  Or develop an unsavory interest in mandalas?  We pride ourselves on holding to certain opinions, developed over the course of an ill-spent and unhappy lifetime, and we'd hate to have to abandon them just to find peace of mind.  There's such a thing as contentment, we think, and we have successfully evaded it only with constant effort, by effectively ducking anything that carries even the whiff of self-improvement.  To perversely turn our back on that principle reeks of treason.  We've built a perfectly precarious life for ourselves by assuming the posture of the self-helpless, rightfully or wrongfully assuming that people who seek to improve themselves are like ducks trying to be tigers.  You are what you are, i.e., somebody you're wise to run away from.  But you always catch up to yourself, and nothing, not even books or chocolate, can help.

But what if we were wrong all that time?  What if yoga, and everything that goes along with it, really does lead to peace of mind?  All I want is my peace of mind sang the singer from Boston who ended up gassing himself with his propane grill in his bathroom, and what horror to think that maybe it was as close as the Self-Help section of his local bookstore.  We hope to never end up a browser there.  But the way things are going, that may just be our fate.                         

corpse pose 

Comments

[Jan Martin Löhndorf]

Don't confuse peace of mind with idiocy - peace of mind helps you to bear the idiocy of what is generally going on, that's the point. And I don't think you will end up with fantasies about you & Sting doing things sane people do not dare speak of.

[UF MIKE]

I hope you're right about Sting. And I like your distinction between peace of mind and idiocy. I never want to accept the world as it is--I just want to be able to stomach it and go about my day without suffering the torments of the damned. I may be damned, but I want to be damned in comfort.

[Martijn]

Yoga, the love that dares not speak its name... Mike, laughed 5 times, and was touched 6. Beautifool!

[AnitaNH]

Mike(you're on a roll today)I confess to interest in mandalas as yoga for the imagination.

Jan Martin, those are words to live by.

[UF MIKE]

Thanks folks. And I have nothing against mandalas, Anita--there just another area of ignorance I choose to mock rather than explore. It's the essence of close-mindedness!

[Dave Mows Grass]

It's posts like these that remind me how utterly unworthy I am to be commenting on this transcendental blog. I'm going to keep commenting anyway because I'm good like that, but I am not worthy to do so. But no more commenting tonight because I need to go shopping. Does anyone know where I can buy a neti pot at midnight. I have a yen for one!

[m]

Nowadays all solid principles are gone or they are not kept. Those who still try to keep them end up running amok, and those are the individuals to admire.

Oh Lord, save me from what I want, which may be similar to saying oh Lord, save me from myself.

[Mar7k]

Do not worry, as soon as you think you have found peace of mind the universe will serve up something to destroy it. Like a Sting sings the great American songbook album.

[UF MIKE]

Thanks for the comments, everybody. Dave, you are more than worthy. You're a kayaker, and hence the most spiritual person in the world. M, those are words of wisdom, which I will probably forget in my willy nilly search for what I want. Mar7k, don't scare me like that. Death, where is thy Sting?

[Bullethole]

In the bathroom with a propane grill.
Smokin'!

[UF MIKE]

Smokin' in the Boys Room.