the wisdom of accidental sages

...or what they've chosen to share with me during this week of spring holidays...

Yoga teacher #1:

On the rampant commericalizaiton of yoga

"Did you see that article in Slate a couple of weeks ago?" I ask, stalling in between poses. "About the whole yogaization of our culture."

He nods and smiles. "You know, I recently decided to come up with a celebrity name for myself: Skybabba."

The whole class laughs even though we're now completely contorted again.

"Someone suggested Big Skybabba," he continues, "But since this is L.A., maybe Muy Skybabba would be better."

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Yoga teacher #2:

On "the practice" -- and its implications for friendship

"Consistency is important."

No one responds. He calls out another pose, one which requires some delicate balancing (Virabhadrasana III )

"It's like brushing your teeth. If you only brushed your teeth once a week, your teeth would rot and fall out."

No one responds in any way at all.

"And," he continues, "you wouldn't have many friends."

At which point I fall out of the pose.

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My grumpy grandmother:

Offering an unsolicited post-Passover seder postmortem:

"Do you want to have kids?" She asks, the carefully calculated affectation of innocence laid on so thick I can hear her false facial expressions straining through the phone.

I sigh. So many permutations and variations, all on the same theme.

"I don't know."

"I wouldn't, if I were you."

"Oh really?"

"Not the way the world is today. Children today are so independent. They don't bother to take care of you or even think about you most of the time."