21/28

10:30 am with Danielle

It was just a nice class today.  I stayed strong throughout, and didn't have any of the nagging problems I've had the last few days.  Then, I cramped in my right foot in the final breathing exercise, but it was not big deal.

Danielle was explaining how Bikram smashed his knee in a weightlifting accident and then cured himself with yoga, including Fixed Firm.  She then said he did that when he was in his teens, and now he's OLD, like in his sixties.  I started laughing and gave her a look, so she immediately shied away, and said that she didn't mean that 60 was old, just that it was older and he'd been doing yoga for a long time.

Of course, she did mean that Bikram is old now, and there's nothing wrong with her saying that.  I was laughing, not offended.  I would have liked it much better if she had something along the lines of:  "Hey, I'm only 20, and I just spent 9 weeks with Bikram, and to me, he's old.  Maybe when I'm older I'll think differently."  I think that that sort of clarification is the kind of thing Gates has been talking about.  I don't think it should really hurt anyone's feelings that someone in her early twenties might thing a 60+ person is old.  I know I did back then, and its amazing how much younger 60 gets every year.

Gates today talks about the specter of success in America.  This one doesn't resonate with me personally.  I've never fallen too much under the spell of material success.  I certainly didn't come to yoga to get away from the allure of success, or to find something more, as Gates says many people do.  I agree with him that American's, for the most part, are way to driven by the desire for success, advancement, status, and the accumulation of things.  And if Yoga helps break that spell for some, then more power to it.  Just yesterday, Lenette was talking about how tragic it is that people spend their entire lives getting more and more, and then end up getting sick, lonely, and bitter in their old age, but still just trying to patch over all their dissatisfactions with more stuff.  I certainly agree, but I'm fairly confident that that is not a trap that will catch me.