The head football coach at the University of Arkansas is embroiled in scandal and just got fired. Yesterday, a bunch of news types had a fun time talking about a planned Save Bobby Petrino rally. Only 200 people showed up, which demonstrates that the good people of Arkansas have far more common sense than the media thought.
Having just gone through one of the two worst college athletics scandals in recent memory, I have some sympathy for any fan base going through a scandal beyond the normal free tattoos NCAA nonsense. As I read about the planned rally in Fayetteville and the condescending, snide reactions from the CFB commentariate yesterday, I remembered the Penn State scandal and the reactions to the student "riots" after Paterno got fired, as if the students on College Avenue represented every Penn State fan.
Arkansas isn't dealing with a scandal of the magnitude of Sandusky, but I feel for the fan base right now. Contemporary major college football programs operate with no oversight and no credo more significant than "get money." Lots of money and power with no accountability is a recipe for disaster, and disaster hurts the most when one sees something they love dragged through the mud.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
A Non Yoga for All People
Note: Most of you know I had a move going on recently, in addition to the rest of life. Now that I'm settled in Durham with Jeff and the hounds, I'm going to try to get back to real daily entries.
Today's New York Times article proved that the NYT can, in fact, write articles on yoga whose primary purpose is not to troll the yoga community. It also raised one of the issues yoga in the United States deals with constantly, which is, to what extent is yoga Hindu? Probably more important to the people who worry about such things, to what extent will yoga compromise one's commitment to other religions?
There's some debate about the extent to which yoga is rooted in religious versus nonreligious Indian traditions, and there are people much, much more qualified to speak on that topic than lil' ole me. I can only speak as a practitioner of modern American yoga, but my take is that contemporary yoga is not neutral towards religion. Certainly, I believe people from all traditions can and do practice yoga, but the one thing to which contemporary yoga is not particularly friendly is fundamentalism. If you are insistent that one way to Heaven exists and it demands we follow a narrow, rigid path, American yoga is probably not for you. We preach inclusivity and acceptance of diverse viewpoints, exactly as you'd expect a bunch of good American liberals to do. What can I say? We're flexible people.
What surprises me is that I haven't heard other religious/cultural traditions trying to design something like yoga around their systems of belief. I guess Christian Yoga kind of qualifies, but just giving the poses Christian names doesn't seem to be fooling anyone. I'm talking about, I am shocked that no one has started from the ground up. Read the Bible, come to an understanding of the principles in it, and design a series of physical exercises designed to help the practitioner embody those principles. You can't tell me that with the rise of evangelical Christian marketing, there's not a place for such a practice.
If you know of a counterpart to yoga in other religious/cultural traditions that is still active today, I'd love to hear about it. If I've just given you an idea that nets you and your house of worship a jabillion dollars, all I ask is ten percent.
Today's New York Times article proved that the NYT can, in fact, write articles on yoga whose primary purpose is not to troll the yoga community. It also raised one of the issues yoga in the United States deals with constantly, which is, to what extent is yoga Hindu? Probably more important to the people who worry about such things, to what extent will yoga compromise one's commitment to other religions?
There's some debate about the extent to which yoga is rooted in religious versus nonreligious Indian traditions, and there are people much, much more qualified to speak on that topic than lil' ole me. I can only speak as a practitioner of modern American yoga, but my take is that contemporary yoga is not neutral towards religion. Certainly, I believe people from all traditions can and do practice yoga, but the one thing to which contemporary yoga is not particularly friendly is fundamentalism. If you are insistent that one way to Heaven exists and it demands we follow a narrow, rigid path, American yoga is probably not for you. We preach inclusivity and acceptance of diverse viewpoints, exactly as you'd expect a bunch of good American liberals to do. What can I say? We're flexible people.
What surprises me is that I haven't heard other religious/cultural traditions trying to design something like yoga around their systems of belief. I guess Christian Yoga kind of qualifies, but just giving the poses Christian names doesn't seem to be fooling anyone. I'm talking about, I am shocked that no one has started from the ground up. Read the Bible, come to an understanding of the principles in it, and design a series of physical exercises designed to help the practitioner embody those principles. You can't tell me that with the rise of evangelical Christian marketing, there's not a place for such a practice.
If you know of a counterpart to yoga in other religious/cultural traditions that is still active today, I'd love to hear about it. If I've just given you an idea that nets you and your house of worship a jabillion dollars, all I ask is ten percent.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Cats
There are two types of people in the world. Members of the first group have a healthy view towards affection and attention. If someone from this group feels love, it reciprocates that love.
The other group is competitive and insecure. The best way to win their attention is to pretend they do not exist. The more you ignore them, the closer they get.
I would like to think of myself as a member of the first group.
The other group is competitive and insecure. The best way to win their attention is to pretend they do not exist. The more you ignore them, the closer they get.
I would like to think of myself as a member of the first group.
It's Not Personal
But if you're wearing a Yankees shirt, I immediately assume you have a below-average intelligence and CONTENT DELETED substandard personal grooming habits.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Juan Maclean Isn't Terrible
In the fall of 2005, an ambitious young hipster named Cereffusion wanted to impress the cool, older kids, so he recommended this hip new music act he discovered. The only problem is that they were terrible. Cliched. Pretentious. Boring. So the cool, older kids laughed at poor Cereffusion, who was so sad that he grew a beard.
However, time exonerated the plucky upstart. Somewhere between 2005 and 2009, The Juan Maclean learned how to make songs like "No Time." Cereffusion's faith had been rewarded, because what was once pretentious and boring had blossomed into something pretty and funky, in a post LCD Soundsystems white hipster kinda way. Near as I can tell, it's also a love song between a human and a robot. Yes, please.
He also shaved the beard. Truly, it is a heady time for our protagonist.
I Miss New England
I want nothing more than a 57 degree day on the shore, with white caps and rocky coasts and snuggling with pretty girls in sweaters watching the boats sail by.
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