Hey there, folks. The following was written by my "friend" who will be known only as "A" and it's about an unusually harrowing meditation class. Dante's 7th layer of hell, to be exact. Some of the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
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"Josh does not like the meditation class. Why? Because the sweet, grandmotherly teacher, Padmini, has us doing "homogay" (Josh's term) gestures and cultivating feelings of friendliness. At the beginning of class she asks questions like, "Who likes flowers?" I rather enjoy the meditation class because I am a hippie. Josh's raging discomfort is an added bonus. You too would derive endless pleasure from seeing him drawing the light of the sun into his heart with a gentle sweep of the arms.
Friday's class was Josh's nightmare realized.
The class started out only moderately saccharine. We were to choose and meditate on the image of a person (puppy or tree) which would inspire feelings of compassion within. We did a few other practices and then something out of the ordinary occured. When the teacher asked us to sit in a circle I knew what was coming. When she asked the class to hold hands, Josh became very still as though he was harnessing his energy for a rapid escape. But it was already too late. He had a hippie on his right (me) and (here's the best part) "Dominick" on his left ("Dominick" is "that guy", he fancies himself a smooth yogic operator, moderately enlightened and an all around pleasure to know. I once shared a rickshaw with him and he told me in about ten different ways how desirable and modest he was). Josh held Dominick's hand for at least three minutes. Dominick was in rare form sporting a shimmery blue/purple faux-silk button-down. When the hand holding was finished we had to go around and express appreciation (ie hug) other group members. I whispered to my friend Anna to go hug him to freak him out, but alas, there wasn't enough time. Josh stood like a pillar and mostly avoided being hugged.
Josh now calls the Circle of Love, "His Own Personal Hell" and has promised to start skipping the class if anything like it ever happens again. I can only hope that we will do it all again on the last day at which time Dominick will most certainly cry tears of joy and gratitude."
This is the Josh I know and love. The conflict of hippie politics and human hating social interaction embodied.
Posted by: drew elliott | February 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM