Dear Sir

I get a lot of unsolicited emails with resumes to my work email address. I have a fairly distinctive domain (yay for early adoption!), and most folks never get past the front page to figure out I am a one-person consulting practice.

So, OK, you are sending out resume or CV spam. But even if I were hiring (I'm not, sorry), heading your email "Dear Sir" is a pretty quick FAIL, at this company!

Since most these come from India, and most of the email verbiage is pretty fractured email, perhaps they get a pass. But still.....

Why I am Not Voting (for my favorite yogis)

I'm not voting in the Talent Search (presented by Athleta). I'm not promoting my faves on Facebook, Twitter or my blog. I'm being a grinch about it all...

The first level of this is purely self preservation. I have at least 3 good friends and teachers in the running (and another half dozen acquaintances) and I am decidedly NOT playing favorites. Yeah, I know I can spread the love and all. But I'm not gonna work that hard for something I have issues with. Hear me out....

First off, I want you to meet someone. Hothead Paisan.

Now, behind my smiling, optimistic, calm demeanor, my yoga teacher loving self, there lurks this "Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist". Folks who have been in my guest bathroom will find a small shrine to Diane Dimassa, Hothead's creator. Diane and Hothead rock. One of my yogic struggles is to keep the anger, the righteous rage at bay. And for the most part, in the words of Ani Difranco, I'm not angry anymore.



So, back to Yoga Journal's Talent Search.

For years, Yoga Journal has gotten some flak for its choices of cover models (predominantly thin, young, and white) and to a lesser extent its content (skewing the same way). I've mostly just ignored it - it's not any more egregious than anything else in the popular media, and there's a lot of good stuff in there.

Over on the Yogadork blog, they've been holding a (Yoga Journal Shadow) Cover Modal Contest wherein yogis can submit their photos to document the diversity of yoga practitioners.

For our version, it’s not so much a contest as a declaration of satya (truth): We ask you send a photo of who you are, as a yogi, a real person, in any shape, size, age, gender or color/clinginess of clothing. We’re not selling magazines. No fancy poses required, but by all means go for what speaks YOU. Everyone is welcome to submit. Hey it’s no magazine cover, but your photo will be proudly featured in our gallery! (note: while there’s no one “winner” per se, stay tuned, there will likely be goodies handed out down the road for participants, TBA.)

Yoga Journal seems to read Yogadork, and so they came up with their own contest. But they've introduced some complexity. And by complexity, I mean "What the hell were you thinking?"

1) The YJ contest is heavily weighted to the same demographic presently gracing the pages of yoga journal. And although there is a counter movement of larger or less mainstream folks submitting their photos, it's a small movement counter to the 100's of more traditionally embodied yogis. So if we were trying to encourage diversity - FAIL.

2) The yoga journal contest adds the lovely concept of a 0 to 5 star rating for each photo. What are we rating here - looks? hotness? brand name yoga gear? difficulty of pose? beauty of the pose? quality of the photograph? beauty of the locale? popularity?.

3) On top of that, the number of votes cast are tabulated. So my three beloved yogi friends are going to walk away with some numerical rating of their practice or themselves (please, let it be 5 stars, they are all 5 stars in my book!), a tabulation of their popularity (number of votes) and the temptation to do a rack and stack within our little yoga community as well as within the greater yoga community. Bleah...

Now, maybe this contest is just a little bit of innocent fun, and I ought to just chillax and let it wash over me. Folks are submitting to the contest for all kinds of reasons - yoga changes lives, and we celebrate that and want to spread it around. People have had their lives turned around during their first yoga class, and they want to share that. I suspect most of us who have become teachers have that sort of motivation.

And I get that yoga in this country is a lot of things - a spiritual practice, a great way to connect with one's body, part of a fitness regime, a business. I teach and practice at an amazingly spacious and beautiful (spelled "costly to build and run") yoga studio, and the space, the decor, the heat, the lights all cost money that comes in the door because of my amazing teacher friends who bring 50 or 60 folks into the studio on a regular basis. So perhaps embracing that popularity, snuggling up to celebrity is just part of the bargain. I'm fine with a bit of duality or dancing with the shadow.

But still, I am bothered. It bothers me to see photos of (mostly) women rated on a 0 to 5 star basis. It bothers me to see individuals collecting votes on either a popularity or a visual aesthetic basis. It brings up that inner Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist - who wants to toss a feminist bomb into the miasma of patriarchal popular culture. And it bothers me to see something that is so precious to me, so deeply meaningful and life changing, cheapened and threatened by that popular culture.

Not very yogic, I know, and that's one more reason do be pissed off at Yoga Journal - for bringing this stuff up within me. This contest has even made me question my desire to teach yoga - that perhaps I'm hiding behind my own spiritual journey, that perhaps I ought to spend less time on my mat and more time changing the world. The fact that I have written (and rewritten this) four times in the past week and have yet to hit the PUBLISH button, for fear of offending, for fear of being unyogic - speaks volumes. Just one more example of me hiding, keeping my head low, being afraid to be seen.

As one of my (contest entering) teachers is wont to say "The f*cking healing journey". Yeah that.

Madison, WI

Out of town all week, working with a client in Madison, WI. Of course, I've been here since yesterday at 1 pm and we have not done much work yet - lot of hurry up and wait (in this case for access to the system we will be testing). I've caught up on email and facebook and various message boards; might as well blog.

Staying at a fairly low cost ($60 / night) Extended Stay Deluxe property - about 1/2 the cost of the regular place I stay in and fine for me. I like the kitchen; I went out and picked up some fruit and cereal for breakfast, some yogurt and pretzels for snacks, and some water and skim milk - a lot healthier than the typical morning continental breakfast (I never sem to be able to resist the eggs or a waffle now and then). And since I am here all week, having some space (couch, lounger, desk, kitchen) is nice.

Some would say "hey, your client is picking up the tab, why do you care?" but that's not how I roll.....

While standing in line getting peeved at the rental car place (which I will not name for fear of earnest follow-up, see below), I tweeted a few times of my crankiness, specifically about the desk clerk who was a little too chatty with customers given that he was the only one there and had a line of folks waiting. So you need to bump the dude up to a pick-up, fine. Do you really need to know that he drives a truck and what kind and does he like it? Oh and do you think I did not notice you selling me (woman) hard on the coverage while you barely mentioned it to the three dudes in front of me?

So anyway, later yesterday my tweets were apparently scoped out by the director of social marketing for this particular company, who wants to follow up. Oh fine. Censorship comes not from the iron fist of big brother but the velvet touch of a caring marketing department wanting to make things right. I'll avoid brand names in the future just to not have to subject myself to "making it right"

While I am in general cranky about being away, and also cranky about being in the belly of the corporate beast (truth be told, its a good company and not at all annoying) - I do have a local yoga studio nearby that is pretty good, and might take an evening's drive up to Appleton to visit with some friends one evening this week.

Tomboys

I've always had a thing for Tomboys. My high school and college crushes (inevitably unrequited) were for the jockettes - field hockey, tennis, track, crew, rugby. There is something about a strong and not quite so gender conforming woman that makes my heart skip a beat.

So needless to say, the Vancouver Olympics is fertile ground for renewing my mad crush skills.

Figure skating / ice dancing? Bleah. Unless the female cognate of Johnny Weir shows up - KD Lang on blades of glory, I'm not interested. And the classic winter skiing sports (downhill, etc.) are also a bit too mainstream to be of much interest.

But bobsled and luge, yeah. Curling. Snowboard and ski-cross (even Shaun White is kinda cute in a Tomboy kinda way). Speed-skating. Biathlon.

SO I have to admit that I've been watching the Olympics not just for the sport and spectacle. But kind of mildly crushing out on the athletes. Kind of an interesting insight.