10/9/02

Mine is my problem, specifically in yoga class--I seem to have the least flexible back of anybody who's ever taken Iyengar Yoga. (I discovered at the last class that "iyengar" is not just a Sanskrit word for a particular style, there actually is or was a Mr. Iyengar.) It's a real challenge to do some of the stuff Columbia-the-teacher-at-Columbia is having us do; what I feel when I try it is often not nearly so much "this is where my body could be" as "this is how far I am from my body being able to do what I want it to do." Which I suppose is a valuable thing too.

All this classwork is seriously cutting down on my cooking time--I haven't made a real meal in a week now, and between dinner with Paula & Tom tomorrow night, Bethany Friday night, the trip to Connecticut this weekend, late classes Monday and Tuesday, a dinner meeting with the NAJP next Wednesday, etc., it's going to be at least another week. I've got visions of a simple dal and some steamed greens and maybe something a little fancier with some carrots dancing in my head. Really, I feel like the pedal has gradually been depressed almost all the way to the floor, and now the air's rushing past my head so fast it smells like there's ozone instead of regular oxygen in it. But I'm actually getting to get some comics content into the NAJP's Friday seminars--this week we've got Maurice Horn, Ben Katchor and Megan Kelso coming in. This, I keep reminding myself, is what I asked for and got: to be overwhelmed with schoolwork, reading, social connections, things that jolt my mental processes out of their various ruts. What I want, though, is a little time and perspective to apply to the music that's piling up here. It'll come eventually.

Douglas

 

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