Why I hate Yoga Mats!!!!!!! X(
Hey There Guys,
I have been blessed with an ability to blend into crowds undetectedly and change my appearance enough. But my biggest blessing has been my love for people and talking with people nothing has taught me more humility and rspect for life than that. I love to engage people in talk. Sometimes, a lot of times a kind word can go so far. Or in the case of a Palestinian cab driver, it can be cathartic.
On thing I love is assaying the various trends in the grips of our society and what better place than to do this than in NYC, aka freak show central as it has been called. The lasted trends that cuts me to the core is the yoga trend that is gripping the city. Not only is it bad enough everyone carries around gigantic bags with the extendable handles and wheels but to make it worse. They sling their yoga mats over there should and wear it as a proud uniform that they unlike a mass majority of people around then do yoga.
I love yoga and practice some form of it myself, I have been to India as well and tried to drink in as deeply as I can the mystical air and sentiments. Fast forward a few years later to being hit repeated in teh face on teh 4 train by some ladies yoga mat. I am so glad she has found a hobby in yoga and simultaneously another way to inflict damage on my face.
But even having my face smashed in is ok. What i hate is what the yoga mat has become a symbol of. Now please read the following carefully, 2 fools can make everyone look bad, and one wise man can redeem a people. When something become a trend to me it generally means that the heart the kernel of knowledge at its basis is gone. Yoga as it is practiced here is a husk not the kernal. To the many people who are so proud to carry their yoga mats on their backs, yoga is a social event, its an entertainment and away of getting attention. That is what cuts me deeply, having grown up reading about Saint such as Milarepa or , Marpa the translator, or Paramahansa yogananda, Sri Maharishi Ramana, etc all these great practitioners of yoga and to hear the water cooler conversation I have heard about yoga
- Scenario 1: ( i.e one women wanted to surprise her husband with her new found flexibility (I guess her husband like seen his wife turn red like a cooked bster trying to bend her legs to make it interesting to each his own), she was over zealous in her practice which resulted in injury. However her husband was kind enough to get her pain killers and bengay from Rite aid. I can imagine or would like to because i like happy endings that her husband bought her a mars bar so she can snack on while unable to sit or navigate corner quickly.)
- Scenario 2: Over heard while buying a chi latte with madeleines….” All the guys in my yoga classes are hot but gay I have enough gay friends…..and they are all so catty too…
I know what you are saying. To each his own Dave-O. I also know that some of you are saying, just take it in the face (the yoga mat that is ) and go about your business , writing about this is indirectly giving these people the attention they crave. Another person might say “be wary that you aren’t saying this out of arrogance because you feel that yours experiences are closer to the truth concerning yoga.” each of them has a valid point, I just hate seeing something I have such respect for get reduced to a shell because its a trend
what do u think?
I think any area of interest gets threatened by waves of trendiness from time to time, but it is important to look to the core of the art. The same thing happened with martial arts in the ’80s – after The Karate Kid came out, “McDojos” sprung up everywhere.