A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment

I love taking yoga classes--even though I can't do a lot of the more complex moves, I still chug along, and have enjoyed increased flexibility, stamina, and calm as a result.

At the end of most yoga classes I’ve taken, there is a time called shivasana, literally translated as “corpse pose,” which is to be a time of deep relaxation and meditation. I always enjoy this time, though it’s invariable that someone in class falls asleep and starts snoring! Last night was no exception—I heard someone snoring, and then, when the meditation was over and everyone was rolling up mats, putting away props, etc., I noticed that there was a man still sleeping in the center of the big yoga studio! He was stretched out on his mat, with all his props around him—a folded blanket, a bolster, a strap, and a yoga block—and was sleeping peacefully away. The strangest thing was, the teacher didn’t try to wake him! I didn’t wait to see if she just left him there, sleeping the night away in the yoga studio (can you imagine the scene when he got home—“But, honey, I fell asleep at yoga!” “Yeah, right!”). For all I know, he could be there still.

I have a stack of papers to grade, so I haven’t been writing much (also, my laptop died, and needs a brain transplant, which Mr. Strega will shortly perform). Mostly, it’s just been hard work with writing, with chasing down submissions, and with teaching—not very interesting things to report, at least not right now. I am knitting
something interesting, though--click on the title of this entry to find out. This project has taught me a lot about patience (if you note the directions, they say to "string 108 seed beeds" onto some of the yarn)! Yes, it's possible--I did it.

While working through writing stuff, I did notice something—when I went through my list of submissions to poetry magazines and whatnot, I realized that 90 percent of them were online submissions (not to online magazines, necessarily, but electronic submissions). What a difference from the “olden days” of wrestling an envelope through a printer (or a bunch of labels) and, at least in my case, choosing the right stamps for the submission and making sure everything was perfect—and then the suspenseful moment when the fateful envelope came back. I know that e-submissions save paper, but there’s a whole rite of sending work out via snail mail that I enjoy and may miss if it all goes the way of the dinosaurs. My students are amazed to hear that I composed 20-page papers on a typewriter—they had no idea how people corrected their typing mistakes on such things!

Well, back to the remainder of my lazy Saturday.