2001-12-30 - 6:57 a.m.
I'm so excited to get some feedback on education from some folks. I sometimes feel teaching is extraordinarily parochial. We get caught up in our own day by day, and we don't know what's going on elsewhere.
I have decided to learn yoga. I've been reading up on it and it sounds like I'd enjoy doing it and enjoy the benefits. Ain't nothing wrong with being more flexible! Actually, I watched this show on contortionists (sp) and discovered that I probably have enough natural flexibility to have become one had I trained. So I figure yoga is right for me.
Yesterday Verona, Siegred, and S's friend from China and I went out. We ate (bad) Mexican food, had coffee, went to botanica, and went to a headshop. S's friend had more questions about the botanica than anything else. Explaining how Catholic saints can simultaneously stand for supernatural forces and even gods in addition to being St. whomever was a little challenging. Actually, Santeria has a lot in common with Voodoo, at least as far as I know.
I used to know several people who practised Santeria, but I hadn't been in a botanica in a long time. Verona had never been in one before, and she was extremely disapproving and dismissing of it all. I think one of the (many) terrible things about Fundamentalist religion is that it attempts to take the mystery out of life.
This place was very small. It was actually rather near my school. There were quite a few people there, mostly older women. I always wonder about the people I see in plces like that. Verona pointed out that, of all the perfumes in one case, that the "Controlling" one was the nearest to being sold out. I replied that this was because religion is about trying to control the world, control our destinies (here and after death). She said, "No!" and Siegred, who is Catholic, backed her up. But I think that's true. Obviously, mainstream organized religion doesn't advertise that fact, because religion is supposed to be about surrendering your will and all that. But what is prayer but an attempt to help shape your destiny? People want god (gods, goddess, goddesses, saints, orishas, etc.) to take their concerns and needs into account when fate is shaped. And American Protestant churches that I've encountered frequently use cause-effect ( if you do this, you will go to hell but if you don't, you will be saved; if America is godless, terrorists will attack us but if we ban abortion and outlaw homosexuality, America will be saved). Control, in the guise of obedience.
Opal
