The Yoga Project: Day 2

My whole body hurts.  Yes it’s only been two days of yoga but there are these muscles that I didn’t even know that I had that are hurting me.

Other than that, nothing is that challenging for the first 2 days (unless you’re fasting, in which the first few days are by far the worst).  Classes, although not easy, have gone by quickly.

I did want to acknowledge one thing.  Last night when I got back from yoga class, I had a TON of energy.  Finding myself quite listless and distracted, I had to coax myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

At this point, I’ll go into my general background with yoga.  I started practicing yoga in 2007 and I took classes once a week for about a year.  That is the most consistently I’ve ever practiced.  Since then it’s been a class here and there but nothing completely regular for more than a couple of months.  One of my biggest hopes is to reestablish yoga as a routine in my life.

In later posts, I’ll go into the philosophy of yoga and the small nuggets of wisdom extracted from each class.  I’ll leave you with one here: last night my yoga teacher began to share his appreciation for many Republican presidential candidates.  Many yoginis began to groan in distaste (and perhaps because he was talking while we were holding a challenging position) and then he said something interesting.  He asked us to notice how easily our minds became irritated.  Then he said something completely radical: if we dislike someone else’s politics then we are not truly doing yoga. 

Something to contemplate, I suppose. 

Namaste!

Poltical Manifesto

I know people who believe being patriotic means listening to all the messages the media sends us.  It means embracing capitalism in its current form, enjoying steak and potatoes and apple pie and supporting any big business because after all, corporations are so American.

I know people that are afraid to say what they really want to say when it comes to politics because they fear the repercussions on their career, status and circle of friends.  I felt fooled into that role for a minute and then I remembered what it was to be an American in the light of this mass movement: Occupy Wall Street.

Being American means you have a right to an opinion, a voice and the right to protest your government when you believe they are wrong. 

I’m not going to pretend to be intimately involved with the movement.  I’m not and in fact, only recently have I begun to pay attention.  What’s so unique about this movement is that it’s not a movement based on a single issue, but rather on the greater discontent of society as a whole.  It’s a multi-generational movement and yet I can understand those Gen Yers out there the most.

I was born in 1984.  I came of age in a period of disillusionment.  I have few friends that didn’t owe at least 15 grand by the time they were 22 and shot into the “real world” without much cushioning and consistent calls from loan collectors.  I was born into a world of shifting powers and globalization all of which contributed to my worldview.

This however, does not hinder my vision of the world I’d like to live in.  I thought I would breathe some life into this vision and share it with you.  Rather than say what is wrong with society, which I think we have a tendency to do too often, I am going to write what I’d like to see.  Politicians – take note:

1.      .  I want the people we elect to office to look more like real Americans.  This means they have average American salaries (the real average, not the congressional average which is NINE TIMES that of an American).  This of course, means that there must be political reform as to how we run our elections which can cost up to millions of dollars in media buys, marketing and staffing.   I want our politicians not just to mirror Americans economically but also racially and by gender as well.  I want more parity in our elected officials because I don’t believe I can be represented by a 65 year old millionaire white male. 
2.         I want universal health care for all.  How do we do this from a budget standpoint?  Here’s a suggestion: invest in holistic health care practitioners that address the underlying problem rather than the symptoms.  All healthcare practitioners should prescribe as much preventative medicine as possible.  This however, cannot happen if people cannot afford to get regular check-ups.  We are the ONLY industrialized nation in the WORLD that does not have universal health care for its people.  What does that say about the priorities of one of the richest countries in the world if it can’t even invest in the health of its people?
3.         I want less spending on war and more investment in green technology, education and small businesses.  It becomes a huge problem when the military industrial complex becomes far more powerful than the citizens, something I fear has already happened in our country. 
4.         I want my future children (if I have them – still concerned about the world’s overpopulation issue – largest threat on earth to mother earth) to grow up in a better society where are differences are celebrated rather than similarities rewarded.  What I mean by that is for people to stop talking about diversity and to live it; this means more diverse individuals in positions of power as authors, politicians, business leaders etc.
5.          I want a lot less sexism in every single media outlet worldwide.
6.          I want a lot less sexism in every single boardroom worldwide.
7.          I want the farming industry to stop putting chemicals in the soil.
8.          I want any animal farmed for its flesh to live full lives where they roam free, see sun, and eat what they are intended to eat i.e. cows eating grass instead of being force-fed corn which they can’t digest, etc. and killed with compassion for their being.  I want the FDA to regulate HUMANE practices across the board.  As Gandhi said: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”  
9.           More than anything, I want my American peers to rise up and do something about what they see wrong in this world.  That is what inspires me the most about Occupy Wall Street.  People standing up for what they believe in is what our nation is built on.  It’s not shopping malls and mass consumerism; it’s not corn-fed cows and hormone injected chickens, it is democracy.  This nation is built on the belief that majority rules and that belief is being challenged by the tiny minority.  I don’t want to live in a country where everyone is too comfortable, stagnant and placated on their i-pads and playstations anymore.  I demand much more.

Thank you to the OWS movement for the inspiration!  Everyone else, do with this, what you will and take action – join a movement, go vegan, spend less time watching television and more time campaigning for issues close to your heart.  Donate time or money to what you believe in and leave this world better than when you came into it. 

Love,

Jen

A patriotic American Citizen

Obama, Osama, Yo' Mama and a Llama

Something wasn’t sitting right with me when I woke up to two text messages from friends and a BBC news alert on my phone this morning. It’s not just that I had been having nightmares for the past two weeks. I’d gotten used to waking up startled and examining my body for bullet wounds or bites from wild animals. This morning was different; I didn’t wake up to a nightmare, I woke up what many would call “justice being served,” ten years late.

Justice is such a tricky little word. It means so much to so many that its meaning begins to become this diluted version of righteousness before your very eyes. All across my social media feeds my fellow countrymen and women were rejoicing at the death of Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. 9/11: a date weighted so heavily in our young history. We all know where we were when it happened. For me as well as for many of my generation: it will be a story we tell our children, our grandchildren...

Examining everyone’s reaction this morning I finally see that we weren’t just a country in mourning in the months that followed the attacks. We were a country in defeat. 3,000 deaths no longer meant grief, instead it meant: how could some third world countryman outsmart me? I’m American. I come from the best country in the world!

And so we sent out our troops, invaded countries with no REAL basis for being there. It was like watching doctors provide temporary pain relief for the external symptoms without ever addressing the disease. All this happening, while folks paraded in the streets trying to be appeased by a little monkey’s plan for retaliation against mysterious forces that were as intangible as they were hidden.

America, I thought we were making progress, truly. I watched history as a black family moved into the most prestigious white house in the country. I saw little instances of change slowly but surely, reaffirming a recovery from eight years of hell that forced me to hide my passport while I was abroad.

I was even back on the road a couple of months ago proudly telling everyone that I was an American, a Chicagoan; a Patriot.

This morning: all of a sudden, I’m back in 2002 and there are these bloodthirsty people chanting “America! America!” I know I won’t be of popular opinion today, but there was something very disturbing about all relishing in the death of someone; not just death but what we could assume to be the brutal killing of someone. I could follow logic quite well; an eye for an eye; tooth for tooth, but this isn’t the logic I am partial to.

I am not in mourning for Osama Bin Laden.  When you participate in war there are consequences and casualties. That is a reality for everyone: whether you are in the military, love someone in the military, are in Senate seats signing bills or just some plain patriot like me.

I won’t, however, parade around touting the American flag today. This is not a victory I want to celebrate. It doesn’t bring back 3,000 lives; there is no closure to some wounds even ten years later with the death of terrorist. Just ask the survivors of concentration camps if the death of Hitler made them feel better about what they've experienced.

The only upside to this is that my tax dollars won’t go to funding ten more years wasted to “bring justice home” and I won’t have to listen to the same people asking, “whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?” as an easy critique of any unpopular administration. At least politically, we can let this one rest in peace.

Disillusionment and Disappointment in Chicago

“You can’t take politics so personally, they are just politics…” A friend said to me. I was visibly upset and furthermore feeling physically ill at the thought of it all.

Chicago had just had its mayoral election – the first in which a Daley was NOT running in 22 years. The City was up for grabs.
In the last wide-open mayoral race for the city of Chicago two decades ago, 68 percent of voters showed up to vote. Yesterday, only 41 percent of registered voters bothered to show up to vote at all. This is the first time in my lifetime that Chicago will have a new mayor and 60 percent of registered voters can’t even bother to show up?!?!

I’m angry; I’m really angry. It’s been a long time since a social/political issue has upset me so much personally and visibly altered my state of being. Candidates were conceding only one hour after the polls had closed.

This is not a blog post about my political views or who I thought should have won in this. I had simply hoped to see all candidates’ ideas presented challenged a bit more to artfully construct a blueprint with various viewpoints of the greatness that Chicago could be. I wanted the ideas and proposals for this great city to be subject to public approval. I wanted to be engaged. I wanted to learn more about the candidates’ plans. I wanted to be spoken to and I wanted to be inspired.

My hopes were crushed around 8p.m. driving to an election party when the news broke that Rahm Emmanuel had won the election with more than 50 percent of the vote and therefore no run-off was necessary.

It’s not the results that bothered me so much. It’s the fact that less than a month ago the world watched full of hope for the Middle East as Egypt was emancipated from a government they had not chosen. They protested out in the streets for weeks. Many people sacrificed so much just to exercise the one right we Americans deem inalienable and yet cannot muster to do on a cold day in February.

Vote.

Maybe it’s the recent travel and conversations with people that will never know the privilege of living in this country that has me much more sensitive to the global world around me these days. Or maybe it’s the patriot inside of me that will defend this country with my dying breath wherever I am. Whatever it is, I am disappointed in my fellow Chicagoans and frankly, I do not know how they can ever make it up to me or to other voting citizens of this great city. We deserve better.

Chicago Flag

Guilt-Trippin' in the U.S.A.

My lovelies,

Somehow this blog has become like this really sick relative that will completely chastise you if you don’t call every other day.  I don’t know how it happened really, but it’s become this crying baby that I birthed and I never imagined so demanding.

This post is inspired by GUILT!!  That little gnawing feeling you have when you did or probably didn’t (if you’re Catholic) do anything wrong.

My mother (she always comes up in our conversations, Blog) is the master of making you feel guilty for just about everything in your life (especially when you don’t call).  As a consequence I’ve grown immune.

My immunity allows me to do the following:

• Tell new parents that I’ve DEFINITELY seen cuter babies.

No Mommy!  I don't want to bite on the stick!

• Tell my dog that she would be much better as a mop because she’s so hairy and then try to get her to bite hard on a long stick so I can drag her across the floor.
• Tell funny jokes about dead babies.
• Tell even funnier jokes about dead babies that were mutilated in some way and or stock piled…
• Drive a Hummer.
• Drive a Hummer full of food and fresh milk through Africa passing all the hungry famous children from t.v.!
• Pour a bunch of motor oil on top of seagulls’ heads in the Pacific Ocean.
• Take pictures of said seagull and laugh hysterically while tweeting them and face-booking them to all my closest 402 friends.

You may get this image texted to you later with a "hahahahaha" as the caption.

• Float leisurely on a huge iceberg while watching Polar Bears drown

and finally:

• Vote Libertarian and Green in really tight elections.

Because I have A.D.D. this week

This guy makes a great Obama.  Brings up a really great point....a friend of mine helped produce it and is in it.  I'll give you a hint: he's Mexican.  :)