September 22, 2006 One morning not long ago,
as Mr. Kaika
Clubwala looked idly out his window over tea, he was startled to see
a large black bear amble up to his trash can, tip it over, and go
methodically through its contents. As soon as the creature located a
package of melted liqueur chocolates-the kind that look like miniature
liquor bottles, individually foil wrapped-it lost interest in the
remainder of the garbage, and spent several minutes popping each
individually into its mouth, chewing thoroughly, spitting out each
crumpled wrapper before proceeding to the next mouthful. When this
particular bonanza ran out, the bruin ambled down the driveway in search
of new fodder...
It rained all the way from Campbell Hall, NY to Dublin, NH, where I
lectured at Namarupa's behest. Namarupa #5 is now out; if you haven't
subscribed yet, proceed immediately to
www.namarupa.org
and do so.
Later that week I accompanied Robert Moses, Namarupa's co-publisher,
to the new yoga space in the Union Mill in Peterborough where he & his
wife Meenakshi will teach. Once a center for the production of wooden
cigar boxes, the Union Mill now houses cozy living & working spaces,
the mill race singing robustly outside its windows yet. The three Moses
children accompanied us on our inspection tour, and when I got back to
the house I was led to the back of the woodshed to inspect another
treasure: the carcass of a weasel that the cat had one day drug into
the house. The weasel having not survived this excursion, its remains
had been left to the ants, who provided a daily lesson in the gross
anatomy of slinky rodents. After the ants completed their work on the
head they (unknowingly) turned the skull over to Tejas, the middle Moses,
who posted it strategically outside the front door, where Sita
(the youngest) can point at it, and Satya (the oldest) can, when
inspired, eulogize over it.
From Dublin to Lenox, MA, and another teaching session at the Kripalu
Ayurvedic Program, garnished this trip by a family of wild turkeys who
promenaded around my digs there. From Lenox to Toronto, then back to
TX, to prepare for CA...
September 7, 2006 Leon Jenkins appears on TV one Sunday
morning on "Texas Country Reporter" as my mother & I prepare for church.
Leon, now 102 years old, still works as a porter at the Beaumont, TX airport,
a job he's held for 52 years now. Quite frankly, he looks great
(at least on TV), and is still alert and talkative. He also still mows his
own lawn, mowing being in fact one of the things he credits for his longevity.
Port on, Leon!
Though I usually think "Texas" when I hear "bull riding," it was in fact
in Arkansas that the face of rodeo cowboyhood (cowboydom?) most recently
displayed itself to me, in the person of the teenaged son of Holly & Matt
Krepps, who own & operate Little Rock's Barefoot Yoga Studio
www.barefootstudio.com.
Lunching with him one Saturday afternoon, we spoke extensively of the
various sights he had seen and not seen during his recent high school trip
to France & Italy, of the bruises he had received from the last night's
bull, and of his plan to ride yet another bull that very night. Looking on
this pleasant, clever, soft-spoken, attentive young man I found it
difficult to imagine him atop a titanic, testosterone-fueled bovine,
tenaciously gripping it in hope of staying aboard for the requisite eight
seconds; but the photos his parents later showed me provided proof. Before
I left Little Rock I received the welcome news that, though his second-count
had not that Saturday night quite reached eight, he did make it safely away
from his maddened ride; may he continue to be well-protected!
Back to TX thence, then off to Manhattan for a darshan of Mother Meera,
then on to Campbell Hall, NY, and the Clubwala's welcoming home ...
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