Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, July 10th) at 2:30 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment belowor (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Sunday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for the “Hays Code” playlist dated “March 31” on YouTube and “03302020” on Spotify]
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
“‘Every act of perception,’ [Dr. Gerald] Edelman writes, ‘is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.’”
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“Many composers, indeed, do not compose initially or entirely at an instrument but in their minds. There is no more extraordinary example of this than Beethoven, who continued to compose (and whose compositions rose to greater and greater heights) years after he had become totally deaf. It is possible that his musical imagery was even intensified by deafness…. There is an analogous phenomenon in those who lose their sight; some people who become blind may have, paradoxically, heightened visually imagery.”
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– quoted from Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Dr. Oliver Sacks (b. 07/09/1933)
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, July 9th) at 12:00 PM. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.
“We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.”
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– quoted from The Captive, Volume 5 of Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust (b. 07/10/1871)
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
ERRATA (That is also a correction): Corrected the date of Marcel Proust’s birthday.
“The whole world naturally seeks peace, and peace is rooted in having a good heart.”
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“I believe we can combine our traditional [Tibetan] understanding of the mind and modern science to show how to cultivate love and compassion and achieve peace of mind. We all want to be happy and fundamental to that is having a good heart.”
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– quoted from the speech to the 8th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet (in Washington, D. C., June 22-23, 2022) by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
Please join me today (Wednesday, July 6th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom.Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at)ajoyfulpractice.com.
Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07062021 HHDL Big Day”]
His Holiness the Dalai Lama turns 87 today! See message link above for his 2021 birthday gift to the world, in which he reaffirmed his commitment to “serving humanity and climate condition.” *Click here to read more about Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, who is considered a bodhisattva (enlightened being) and/or click here to see how his thoughts on suhrit-prapti (“the ability to cultivate a good heart; obtain friends”) fit with the Yoga Philosophy (and a little role playing).
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
“Every body continues in its state of rest, or uniform motion in a right line, unless compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”
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– “Law 1” quoted from “Axioms, or Laws of Motion” in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (published 07/05/1687) by Sir Isaac Newton
NOTE: Some editions use the term “straight line.”
Please join me today (Tuesday, July 5th) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment belowor (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “05262020 Fearless Play with Miles & Sally”]
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
The following was originally posted today in 2021. Class details have been updated. As there are even more elephants “in the room” than the ones I referenced below, I can’t promise that tonight will be a celebration. It will, however, be an opportunity for contemplation.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
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– quoted from “The Declaration of Independence” drafted by the Committee of Five and (eventually) signed by delegates of the Second Continental Congress
In the United States, a lot of people – one might even argue, most people – are celebrating the Fourth of July, Independence Day. They would have taken the day off from work (if it wasn’t already the weekend) and many will have Monday off. Since Covid-19 numbers are going down in most of the country, people are celebrating with picnics, get-togethers, parades, concerts, and – even when they’ve been advised against it – fireworks and gunshots in the air.
That’s how we do it in America. Right?
And, we have the freedom to do that. Right?
Except, such assumptions leave out the millions of Americas working today. Some (like me, as well as musicians and other performers, theatrical technicians, and a handful of pyrotechnics professionals) choose to work today and may even be excited to work today. Others, millions and millions of others, don’t have a choice. They work because they lack the financial freedom and/or they work in order for the rest of us to celebrate, freely.
In that last category are all the essential workers like people in healthcare, first responders, grocery workers, delivery people, and people in various forms of journalism – all the people who have kept us going over the last year-plus. Some of them are also in that penultimate category (just as are some in the first category).
And, since I’m being extra real here, the people who serve(d) in the military and their families sometimes fall in all three categories.
One of the questions I have today is: Do you picture these people when you think of what it means to be American? Do you give thanks for these people when you celebrate your freedom (assuming you feel free)? Has/Does your understanding of freedom, independence, “liberty and justice” for all change when you picture, express gratitude for, and even celebrate some of the people above?
Or, since I snuck it in there, do you think of those people when you say the Pledge of Allegiance?
“…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
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“…such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn….”
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– quoted from the “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech by Frederick Douglass (July 5, 1852)
The Fourth of July, as a day of pomp and circumstance, is always slightly ironic to me, because it is simply a publishing date. Granted, it’s not the only publishing date I celebrate. While at least one of the documents I mention over the years is much more inclusive than the Declaration of Independence, it is not widely celebrated in the United States.
I know, I know, there are some people thinking, “Hold up a minute, the Declaration of Independence is inclusive.” To which, I would respond (as anyone familiar with the documents history would respond) that it was, actually, intentionally exclusive. However, it was also designed to be adjusted to, theoretically, become more inclusive – hence the amendments and the ability of the three branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial) to add-on. However, the rights, provisions, and promise of this nation still aren’t extended equally to all citizens or to all within the nation’s borders. It’s not a perfect system, nor is it a perfect union.
Although, one could argue that despite – or because of – current events it is still “a more perfect Union.”
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.
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I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
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You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”
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– quoted from a letter John Adams wrote to Abigail Adams, with the heading “Philadelphia July 3d, 1776”
Going back to my reference to essential workers, service people, and all of their families; today’s practice is a celebration, but it is also a reminder. It is a reminder that, just as Medgar Evers said in 1963, “freedom is never free.” It is a reminder, just as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young sang in 1971, that you can “find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground” – and, sometimes, behind bars (or sitting on the bench).
It is also a reminder that stresses the importance, as the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. did during the commencement speech he gave at Oberlin College on June 14, 1965, of “remaining awake through” challenging and changing times. Some people think of pandemic and the events of the last year-plus as a wake-up call.
But, let’s be real. Some people are hitting snooze and going back to normal, I mean sleep. The thing we must remember about the events of 1776 is that when it comes to freedom, independence, “liberty and justice,” we all truly have it… or some of us are ignoring the elephant in the room.
“All I’m saying is simply this: that all mankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be – this is the interrelated structure of reality.”
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– quoted from the Oberlin College commencement speech entitled, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (June 14, 1965)
Please join me today (Monday, the 4th of July) at 5:30 PM for a 75-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
There is no playlist for the Common Ground practice.
A playlist for this date is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “4th of July 2020”]
NOTE: This playlist has been remixed since last year. It is still slightly different on each platform, but mostly with regard to the before/after class music. The biggest difference is that the videos from the 2020 blog post do not appear on Spotify.
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“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
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– quoted from the “Introduction” to Common Sense, signed by the “Author” (Thomas Paine, known as “The Father of the American Revolution”) and dated “Philadelphia, February 14, 1776
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### LET FREEDOM RING (by lifting the bell & ringing it) ###
It’s National CROWN Day (unofficially, of course)!
“… so he said to put an end to all misunderstanding: ‘We parted on bad terms.’
The Manageress seemed to construe this as excellent news.
‘So then you’re free?’ she said.
‘Yes, I’m free,’ said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.”
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– quoted from “FIVE / The Hotel Occidental” in the unfinished novel Amerika by Franz Kafka
In some ways, we are living in a realistic, surreal world, not unlike the worlds created by Franz Kafka, who was born today in 1883. Like Kafka’s characters, we find ourselves transformed and/or in oddly transformational situations where we are forced to confront things that just don’t make sense. Of course, in order for things to make sense, we need context… reference points… history. In fact, in a letter to Oskar Pollak (dated 27 January 1904), Kafka advocated reading books that shake us awake. This was a follow-up to an earlier letter (dated 8 November 1903, translated by Frederick R. Karl), in which Kafka wrote, “We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours? And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.”
Today in 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail about how (and why) the “Second Day of July 1776” would be remembered and celebrated for all times.
Today in 1863, the Army of the Potomac forces, led by Major General George Meade, defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the third Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and its conclusion not only halted the confederacy’s invasion of northern territories, it also marked the beginning of the end of the Civil War (but not the end of the battle for long-promised freedom). Today in 2019, in America’s ongoing effort to make our ideals make sense (as a reality rather than a theory), the CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Act (SB188) was signed into law under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (of 1959) and the California Education Code. As I noted last year: “New Jersey and New York adopted similar versions of the bill and other states, including South Carolina, are following suit. But, those laws don’t protect people in all over the country and they don’t apply outside of the country.” You can click the previous link for the history and/or click here for more (con)text(ure).
Please join me for a 65-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Sunday, July 3rd) at 2:30 PM. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment belowor (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Sunday’s is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “4th of July 2020”]
[NOTE: This playlist has been remixed since 2020. It is still slightly different on each platform, but mostly with regard to the before/after class music. The biggest difference is that certain contextual videos do not appear on Spotify. One track may not play on Spotify due to artist protests.]
“Who is free? The free must certainly be beyond cause and effect. If you say that the idea of freedom is a delusion, I shall say that the idea of bondage is also a delusion. Two facts come into our consciousness, and stand or fall with each other. These are our notions of bondage and freedom. If we want to go through a wall, and our head bumps against that wall, we see we are limited by that wall. At the same time we find a willpower, and think we can direct our will everywhere. At every step these contradictory ideas come to us. We have to believe that we are free, yet at every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a delusion, the other is also a delusion, and if one is true, the other also is true, because both stand upon the same basis — consciousness. The Yogi says, both are true; that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that we are free so far as the soul is concerned. It is the real nature of man, the soul, the Purusha, which is beyond all law of causation. Its freedom is percolating through layers of matter in various forms, intelligence, mind, etc. It is its light which is shining through all.”
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– quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 2.20 from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
This is the “missing” post for Wednesday, June 29th. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.
“The Nation’s highway system is a gigantic enterprise, one of our largest items of capital investment. Generations have gone into its building. Three million, three hundred and sixty-six thousand miles of road, travelled by 58 million motor vehicles, comprise it. The replacement cost of its drainage and bridge and tunnel works is incalculable. One in every seven Americans gains his livelihood and supports his family out of it. But, in large part, the network is inadequate for the nation’s growing needs.“
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– quoted from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message to the Congress of the United States, dated February February 22, 1955 (with a header from James C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the President, indicating that the message “MUST BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation may given out or published UNTIL RELEASE TIME” of Noon EST)
Take a moment to consider the difference between mobility and mobilization. It’s possible that you think of these things as being the same, but in totally different contexts. Maybe you only think of mobility in terms of physical ability and you only think about mobilization in terms of the military. To clarify, mobility is, in fact, related to range of movement. We can think of it in term’s of a body’s range of movement (i.e., how much a person can physically move) and we can also think of it in terms of social movement (e.g., someone’s upward mobility at work and/or their socioeconomic mobility). On the flip side, mobilization is what it takes in order to move.
As to the latter, the armed services (at least here in the United States) have specific meanings associated with the term “mobilization” – as in the mobilization of troops, which is what it takes in order for an individual or a unit to be sent to a specific location for a specific purpose. (Note: According to the U. S. Department of Veteran Affairs, mobilizations count as deployments, but some deployments do not count as mobilizations.) Understanding the military definition can give us some insight into how mobilization works in our own mind-body. For instance, there are a lot of different resources, organization, and infrastructure needed in order for members of the military to assist citizens in the event of a natural disaster – or in the event of a man-made disaster. Yes, having the people, with the necessary skills and the right appropriate equipment is part of mobilization. However, all of those resources are useless if the people and things can’t get where there needed and/or can’t get there in a timely fashion.
This same idea applies to the human mind-body, which is made to move. Similar to the military, we have all these different parts (with different functions) that make up the whole. Our parts can work together in an efficient way – to achieve a desired goal or to be more functional – and/or we can recruit parts of ourselves in ways that might be detrimental and led to discomfort, disease, and/or injury. Knowing how we move, how we can move, brings awareness to what we need in order to move. This is how mobility and mobilization go hand-in-hand: movement (i.e., mobility) is essential to life; therefore, mobilization is as paramount to us individually as it is to us collectively.
Recognizing the importance of national mobilization, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed and enacted the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act on June 29, 1956. Also known as the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, this 10-year plan to improve and expanded the United States highway system included the addition of 41,000 miles of interstate highway that was consistent in terms of construction, nomenclature, and signage. It was the largest public works project during it’s enactment and it all stemmed from President Eisenhower’s experiences in the military and how those experiences informed his decisions as commander-in-chief.
“Third: In the case of an atomic attack on our key cities, the road net must permit quick evacuation of target areas, mobilization of defense forces and maintenance of every essential economic function. But the present system in critical areas would be the breeder of a deadly congestion within hours of an attack.”
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– quoted from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message to the Congress of the United States, dated February February 22, 1955 (with a header from James C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the President, indicating that the message “MUST BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation may given out or published UNTIL RELEASE TIME” of Noon EST)
After graduating from West Point (in 1915) and marrying Mary Geneva “Mamie” Doud (on July 1, 1916), Dwight D. Eisenhower spent World War I stateside at a tank training center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After the war, and several promotions, he participated in the 1919 Motor Transport convoy – which was the US Army Motor Transport Corps “Truck Train” that drove from Washington, D. C. to Oakland, California and then ferried to San Francisco. Several dozen expeditionary officers and observers from the War Department (and various military divisions) as well as 258 enlisted men and (at least) 81 vehicles were expected to travel 3,000 miles in two months. In the end, they traveled over 3,200 miles and finished the trip a week behind schedule. Their delays were partially due to inexperienced personnel and partially due to the dilapidated roads (and roads that were not appropriate for military vehicles) – a combination which led to over 200 “road incidents” that resulted in 9 vehicles being retired; over 80 bridges being broken and repaired; and nearly two dozen men being injured to the point that they could not complete the trip.
The convoy was a public relations event as well as an opportunity for the US Army to road test vehicles and infrastructure. In other words, it was a way to assess mobilization. The future president called the convoy “a lark” and a learning experience. In At Ease: Stories I Tell My Friends, he also described it as “difficult, tiring and fun.” Overall, though, it was a sharp contrast to his experience during World War II, when he discovered the usefulness of Germany’s autobahn.
“Once the Allies controlled the superhighway, they were able to force an unconditional surrender in just six weeks.”
– quoted from “Ike’s Grand Plan” in The Roads that Built America: The Incredible Story of the U. S. Interstate System by Dan McNichol
*“By the time the Allied forces reached Germany, they could take full advantage of the autobahn. E. F. Koch, a U.S. Public Roads Administration (PRA) employee who observed the autobahn in 1944-45 as a highway and bridge engineer with the Ninth Army. He and his engineering unit spent the unusually cold winter maintaining roads in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands that, after the pounding of military vehicles and the thaw in early 1945, were in terrible shape. Conditions changed when they reached Germany in early 1945. ‘After crossing the Rhine and getting into the areas of Germany served by the Autobahn . . . our maintenance difficulties were over. Nearly all through traffic used the Autobahn and no maintenance on that system was required.’“
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– quoted from “Highway System – Infrastructure System: The Reichsautobahnen” an expanded version of material in “The Man Who Changed America” as posted on the U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration website [Contact: Richard Weingroff]
Now officially known as Bundesautobahn (“federal auto track” or federal motorway), the autobahn was originally known as the Reichsautobahn (initially in reference to the Welmar / German Republic), but was not firmly established or constructed until after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor and the Enabling Act of 1933 started the county’s descension into Nazi Germany. Some people called them Straßen Adolf Hitlers (“Adolf Hitler’s roads) and they were intended to serve multiple purposes – including improved military mobility and mobilization. Ultimately, the Nazi regime used their rail system more than their highway system as they dominated the country and destroyed communities. However, the carefully planned and connected road system did provided an advantageous opportunity for the Allied forces: an efficient infrastructure for convoys like the Red Ball Express – a primarily African-American operated truck convoy – to quickly resupply forces moving from the beaches of Normandy into Germany.
As President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted the USA to have a similar in-country advantage if it ever needed it. In 1954, in the middle of his first term in office, he solicited studies from three (3) different sources – this was in addition to the survey he had done at the end of World War II. In February of 1955, he submitted their conclusions and his own recommendations to the United States Congress. In his letter to Congress, the President illustrated why “All three [studies] were confronted with inescapable evidence that action, comprehensive and quick and forward-looking, is needed.” He emphasized the pros (of implementing his recommendations) and the cons (of not moving forward with his plan). He also highlighted these pros and cons as they related to the economy, the overall state of the union, and the defensibility of the nation. In very clear language and undeniable numbers, he quantified how and why a federal highway system was a matter so paramount that it warranted a diversion of funds from the military.
“Ike accepted the German’s surrender on May 7, 1945. One of the first things he did as the head of occupied Germany was order an investigation of the Autobahn. Years after the U. S. Interstate System’s construction began, he called, ‘After seeing the autobahns of modern Germany and knowing the asset those highways were to the Germans. I decided, as President, to put an emphasis on this kind of road building. This was one of the things I felt deeply about, and I made a personal and absolute decision to see that the nation would benefit by it. The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land.'”
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– quoted from “Ike’s Grand Plan” in The Roads that Built America: The Incredible Story of the U. S. Interstate System by Dan McNichol
Once it was completed, President Eisenhower’s interstate plan connected military basis and major cities from coast to coast. It decreased the travel time along the route of the 1919 truck convoy from two months to 5 days (and without as many “incidents”). All of this was achieved by combining direct experience – of what worked and what didn’t work – with coordinated studies. Similarly, we can gain awareness of our own mobility and mobilization through direct experience and coordinated study. We can even uses different methodology and mechanisms.
Kinesiology has multiple applications and is a multidisciplinary endeavor related to physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, and neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. In other words, it’s not just about the body. Even if we say that we only want to look at the mind-body from a purely physical standpoint, we’re still going to be dealing with muscles, joints, tendons, and innervation. We’re still going to deal with energy – again, we’re just using a different road map.
“Our unity as a nation is sustained by free communication of thought and by easy transportation of people and goods.”
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“Together, the uniting forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear–United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.”
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– quoted from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message to the Congress of the United States, dated February February 22, 1955 (with a header from James C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the President, indicating that the message “MUST BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation may given out or published UNTIL RELEASE TIME” of Noon EST)
Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “08072021 The Turtle’s Secret to Moving Meditation”]
There is another “Traffic Jam” song, but it’s a little too explicit for me. Sorry.
“First: Each year, more than 36 thousand people are killed and more than a million injured on the highways. To the home where the tragic aftermath of an accident on an unsafe road is a gap in the family circle, the monetary worth of preventing that death cannot be reckoned. But reliable estimates place the measurable economic cost of the highway accident toll to the Nation at more than $4.3 billion a year.
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Second: The physical condition of the present road net increases the cost of vehicle operation, according to many estimates, by as much as one cent per mile of vehicle travel. At the present rate of travel, this totals more than $5 billion a year. The cost is not borne by the individual vehicle operator alone. It pyramids into higher expense of doing the nation’s business. Increased highway transportation costs, passed on through each step in the distribution of goods, are paid ultimately by the individual consumer.
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Third: . . . .
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Fourth: Our Gross National Product, about $357 billion in 1954, is estimated to reach over $500 billion in 1965 when our population will exceed 180 million and, according to other estimates, will travel in 81 million vehicles 814 billion vehicle miles that year. Unless the present rate of highway improvement and development is increased, existing traffic jams only faintly foreshadow those of ten years hence.
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To correct these deficiencies is an obligation of Government at every level.”
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– quoted from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message to the Congress of the United States, dated February February 22, 1955 (with a header from James C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the President, indicating that the message “MUST BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation may given out or published UNTIL RELEASE TIME” of Noon EST)
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### Keeping it between the lines is easier when the lanes are wide. ###
“The mind can of course influence the perception of an object. This object has an independent existence apart from the source of perception. If we insist on the concept of the mind from moment to moment being the source, the means, and the object of perception, we face problems in comprehending the possibility of one person remembering what he saw in the past, sharing what he has seen, and reconciling the fact that one object seen by one person is not necessarily seen by another or in the same way.”
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— quoted from the commentary on Yoga Sūtra 4.21 in The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T. K. V. Desikachar
Please join me for a 90-minute virtual yoga practice on Zoom today (Saturday, July 2nd) at 12:00 PM. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07012020 Caesar Rodney’s Ride”]
NOTE: The Spotify track has been updated.
“What’s at stake here is more than the rights of my client. It’s the moral commitment stated in our country’s creed.”
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– Thurgood Marshall (b. 7/2/1908), NAACP attorney for plaintiff in Murray v. Pearson, 169 Md. 478, 182 A. 590 (1936)
We could reflect on today as it is related to1776, 1839, or1908.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
“Third: In the case of an atomic attack on our key cities, the road net must permit quick evacuation of target areas, mobilization of defense forces and maintenance of every essential economic function. But the present system in critical areas would be the breeder of a deadly congestion within hours of an attack.”
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– quoted from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message to the Congress of the United States, dated February February 22, 1955 (with a header from James C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the President, indicating that the message “MUST BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation may given out or published UNTIL RELEASE TIME” of Noon EST)
Please join me today (Wednesday, June 29th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom.Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at)ajoyfulpractice.com.
Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “08072021 The Turtle’s Secret to Moving Meditation”]
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
The following was originally posted June 28, 2020. Class details and music links have been updated. Two extra quotes and additional 2021 post links (with statistics) have been added.
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
“[It was] a perfect event in my life because it let me live the kinds of dreams I had of seeing an equitable society. I was able to live my life, which I would have done anyway, but without Stonewall I would have had more opposition. So it turns out the times were on my side, which left me with a basically happy life.”
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– Martin “Marty” Boyce
It started off like any other regular Friday. People got up, got dressed, went to work (on Wall Street) or to school. Some wrote poetry or songs in a café. Some gathered on a street corner hoping to score their next meal. It was a regular Friday, and people were looking forward to the weekend. They came home or went to a friend’s place. They changed clothes – that was the first spark of something special… but it was still just a regular Friday. People were going to go out, have a good time, sing, dance, gather with friends (maybe do it again on Saturday night), and then spend some time recovering so that, on Monday, they could go back to being regular.
It was a regular Friday… that became an extraordinary Saturday, because at around 1:20 AM on Saturday, June 28, 1969, four policeman dressed in dark suits, two patrol officers in uniform, a detective, and a deputy inspector from the New York Police Department walked into the Stonewall Inn and announced that they were “taking the place!” It was a raid.
“I was never afraid of the cops on the street, because I was not an obvious person. I was not flaunting my homosexuality to anyone. I wasn’t holding hands. It would never have occurred to me to try and have a confrontation with them [because] you don’t want to be arrested for any stupid reason. I never had any problems with the police. I never had problems with anyone anywhere, until that night…. I never ever gave it a thought of [Stonewall] being a turning point. All I know is enough was enough. You had to fight for your rights. And I’m happy to say whatever happened that night, I was part of it. Because [at a moment like that] you don’t think, you just act.”
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– Raymond Castro
In some ways, there was still nothing special. The Stonewall Inn, located on Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan was a Mafia owned “private bottle bar” frequented by members of the GLBTQIA+ community. It was raided on a regular basis, usually at a standard time. Because the bar was Mafia owned, it would normal get a heads up (from someone who knew the raid was coming – wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and just before the raid was scheduled the lights would come up so people could stop holding hands or dancing (both of which were illegal for same sex partners) and any illegal alcohol could be hidden. The police would separate people based on clothing and then a female officer would take anyone wearing a dress into the bathroom in order to check their genitalia. Some people were arrested, but many would go back to the party once the police had taken their leave.
The raid that happened this morning in 1969 was different. There was no warning. No lights came up. No then-illegal activity was hidden. Unbeknownst to the patrons, four undercover officers (two men and two women) had previously been in the bar gathering visual evidence. The police started rounding people up and, also, letting some people go. They were planning to close the bar down. The only problem was…people didn’t leave. The people who were released stayed outside in the street, watching what was happening, and they were eventually joined by hundreds more.
“I changed into a black and white cocktail dress, which I borrowed from my mother’s closet. It was mostly black, empire-waisted, with a white collar. I used to dress with a bunch of older queens and one of them lent me black fishnet stockings and a pair of black velvet pumps…. The cop looked at me and said, ‘Hey, you!’ and I said, ‘Please, it’s my birthday, I’m just about to graduate from high school, I’m only 18,’ and he just let me go! [I was] scared to death that my father would see me on the television news in my mother’s dress.”
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– Yvonne (also known as Maria) Ritter
At times the crowd was eerily quiet. But then, as Mafia members were brought out, they started to cheer. When employees were brought out, someone yelled, “Gay power,” and someone started to sing. An officer shoved a person in a dress and she started hitting him over the head with her purse. The crowd was becoming larger… and more restless. At some point people started throwing beer bottles and pennies (as a reference to the police being bribed by the Mafia.) This was becoming a problem, but an even bigger problem was when the police found out the second van was delayed. They were stuck.
Then, things went from bad to worse when some of the 13 people arrested (including employees and people not wearing what was considered “gender appropriate clothing”) resisted. One of the women, a lesbian of color, managed to struggle and escape multiple times. At some point there were four officers trying to contain her. When a police officer hit her over the head, she yelled at the crowd, “Why don’t you guys do something?” And they did.
Police officers barricaded themselves and several people they were arresting (some of whom were just in the neighborhood) inside of the bar for safety. The NYPD’s Tactical Patrol Force was called out to free the officers and detainees trapped inside the Stonewall Inn. One witness said that the police were humiliated…and out for blood. The police’s own escalation, in trying to contain the violence, was met with a Broadway chorus style kick-line… and more violence. The escalation continued. At times, people were chasing the police.
The ensuing protests/riots lasted through the weekend and, to a lesser degree, into the next week. The bar re-opened that next night and thousands lined up to get inside. There was more vandalism and more violence, but on Saturday night (June 28th) there were also public displays of affection: at that time, illegal same-sex public displays of affection. People were out.
“It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience – it wasn’t no damn riot!”
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– Stormé DeLarverie
The Stonewall Uprising, the riots and the ensuing protests and celebrations were not the first of their kind. Three years earlier, the Mattachine Society had organized “sip-ins” where people met at bars and openly declared themselves as gay. That kind of organized, peaceful civil disobedience was happening all over the country during the 60’s. It was a way to break unjust laws and it temporarily reduced the number of police raids. However, the raids started up again.
Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P. Johnson, Zazu Nova, Jackie Hormona, Martin “Marty” Boyce, Sylvia Rivera, Raymond Castro, John O’ Brian, and Yvonne “Maria” / “Butch” Ritter were among the people involved in the Stonewall Uprising. The musician Dave Van Ronk (who famously arranged the version of “House of the Rising Sun” made famous by Bob Dylan) was not gay, but he was arrested. Alan Ginsberg, who was gay, would witness the riots and applaud the people who were taking a stand. Village Voice columnist Howard Smith was a straight man who had never been inside the Stonewall Inn until he grabbed his press credentials and made his way into the center of the uprising. Craig Rodwell (owner of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop) and Fred Sargent (the bookstores manager) started writing and distributing leaflets on behalf of the Mattachine Society. They also drummed up media interest. In addition to Rodwell and Sargent, Dick Leitsch (a member of the Mattachine Society), John O’Brien, and Martha Shelley (a member of the Daughters of Bilitis) would start organizing so that the protest that turned into a riot would come full circle as a protest that created change.
A year later, June 28, 1970, thousands of people returned to Stonewall Inn. They marched from the bar to Central Park in what was then called “Christopher Street Liberation Day.” The official chant was, “Say it loud, gay is proud.” And, I’m betting there was at least one kick line.
“But [Gil] Scott-Heron also had something else in mind—you can’t see the revolution on TV because you can’t see it at all. As he [said] in a 1990s interview:
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‘The first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way you live and the way you move. The thing that’s going to change people is something that nobody will ever be able to capture on film. It’s just something that you see and you’ll think, “Oh I’m on the wrong page,” or “I’m on I’m on the right page but the wrong note. And I’ve got to get in sync with everyone else to find out what’s happening in this country.”’
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If we realize we’re out of sync with what’s really happening, we cannot find out more on television. The information is where the battles are being fought, at street level, and in the mechanisms of the legal process.”
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– quoted from the Open Culture article “Gil Scott-Heron Spells Out Why ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’” by Josh Jones (posted June 2nd, 2020)
Please join me today (Tuesday, June 28th) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment belowor (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06282020 Stonewall PRIDE”]
(NOTE: The YouTube playlist has been updated with the latest link to the “forbidden” music. The Spotify playlist may skip an instrumental track.)
“Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.”
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– quoted from an originally unpublished introduction to Animal Farm by George Orwell
Click here for a short note about Gil Scott-Heron, whose lived experience in 1969 New York City may not have been a specifically LGBTQIA+ experience, but did write words that speak to an intersectionality of experiences that existed 52 years ago today and still exist to this day. As I mentioned last year, “He was speaking from the experience of being part of a marginalized (and sometimes vilified) community in the world (in general) and in New York (specifically). And, therefore, it is not surprising that his words apply.” Click here for some contextualized stats.
If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can call 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You can also call the TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.
If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, call the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).
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A Joyful Practice 