AWOWL · 7 February 2009

Long days at the desk, this term. I love it. I’ve rigged my little paper lamp near the window where, having finally won the game against the motion sensors, I sit otherwise in the dark. For a week it has rained, a static-dampening pour that sent my focus a little more inside and left the walkways around the quad still covered in sheen and flecked with new drops in the lamplight.

Campus Crusade for Christ meets at night: they wail next door in Josiah Royce Hall, echoing down the sandstone neo-roman colonnade where I watched Tom Hanks stalk back and forth, back and forth, for regrettable Angels and Demons takes that were supposed to be set in Italy. Their hollering, a good saccharine match for Dan Brown adaptations if a defilement of the building’s namesake, Royce, sounds an awful lot like Counting Crows. Shame what’s happened to Christian music these days: if they were still singing Old Time Religion maybe I’d sneak in the back and join them. I do miss singing with others; maybe that’s why part of why breathing with others means so much.

And so, in that spirit…. BAW accepted a large sum of skymiles and I’ve made cover to disappear from here for spring break and then some. I want to go far, to MY State of lOst childREn, to take a long view of my life from here forward. Given the options that have opened and those foreclosed, which drives and duties will I satisfy, and which will I cast off? How much does the collapse of the markets change everything, and how much do the old shoes thrown in to the cogworks just give me cover to contemplate the nothingness that I wouldn’t have time to notice otherwise? I don’t know; but soon I will.

Meantime, for all my allergies to the little imperialisms of LOHAS, it is time to pay my respects. Because come on. I love SKPJ and the thing he’s made. The first time I met him the foot-touching line made me shudder in revulsion, so here I am dumping horrible tons of carbon into the atmosphere and shirking my work to honor the system and its professor-methodologist while he’s still on this side of living.

I know it’s the hot season, but I’ve spent a year in a cardboard and zinc shack in one the most deforested zones of the Americas’ tropics. I know it’s the party season, but it’s ok if that’s what my spring break is about.

Meantime: much to do, in ways that reveal how much I’d love the scholar’s life if I can hold out in this deluge long enough to secure it. I don’t really want to think about spring break until I get there in another month. Everything's excellent here now and, in a way that feels right, I have a ton to do. But I'm mentioning the plans here in order to ask we not chat about it—at all—on the FB. My efforts to bring my life together there in a single digitized identity have been tested by this and found wanting. Too many professors friending me there, and I’m wouldn’t even know where to begin explaining the fact that I am going to Mecca. Hey! It's for research purposes!

Sort of. I’ll have enough trouble as it is explaining to you, let alone myself.

Posted by (0v0)        
Categories: astanga yoga , markets-networks-society

Comment

1. But it IS for research purposes…(achoo)

   Posted by: Gregor · Feb 7, 06:10 PM · #

2. Owl, je t’adore.

   Have fun. I hope to see the Methodologist before he shuffles off too, and I have similar difficulty explaining that to myself. As for you, take field notes! Purchase carbon offsets! (just kidding)

   Posted by: joy · Feb 8, 01:52 AM · #

3. Aren’t airmiles wonderful? I’ve got enough miles for two trips to Africa now and am trying to keep them safe for when my official travel budget runs low.
   Enjoy your trip, and believe me, for observers like yourself, any trip is research purpose. Participant observation.

   Posted by: Fatou · Feb 8, 02:33 AM · #

4. Certain things, as you’re aware, are simply not for the FB.

   I will be all curiosity, so you must keep us posted (about which I have no doubt, either).

   Posted by: patrick · Feb 8, 06:53 AM · #

5. i’m with Joy, jag avgudar dig. brilliant.

   Posted by: chitta vritti · Feb 8, 10:00 AM · #

6. wow.
   I agree- any trip is research purpose!

   Posted by: Liz · Feb 8, 10:41 AM · #

7. AND, for what it’s worth, what a McFreakin’ phenomenal EPB.

   Posted by: patrick · Feb 8, 04:04 PM · #

8. Jag avgudar dig.

   And thanks, Patrick. :-)

   Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 8, 05:20 PM · #

9. Oh, carbon offsets? Aren’t those just a legitimation racket for the kinds of people who fly around the world for yoga holidays and indulge in other gratuitous forms of spiritual materialism?

   I offset the flights.

   Cost me a couple hundo.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 8, 05:24 PM · #

10. That was the “just kidding” bit. ;)

    Posted by: joy · Feb 9, 01:12 AM · #

11. hi (0v0)
    i’m a little slow today. are you’re headed to Mysore-on-the-beach in the spring during SKPJ’s and Saraswati’s stint there, or to the real thing? either way, may it be a wonderful experience for you.
    hugs
    Arturo

    Posted by: arturo · Feb 9, 06:24 AM · #

12. Good call!

    Posted by: cody · Feb 9, 09:29 AM · #

13. CP, what is this “good call” to which you refer?

    I’m telling you… I really did purchase offsets for this trip. Not kidding!

    Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 9, 09:45 AM · #

14. You going on the trip is a good call.

    I am neutral on the offset issue. They provide governments and corporations will a mechanism for monetizing pollution. Most hardcore environmentalists are against them. Gore likes them because they’re feasible and better than nothing.

    On the other hand, they allow individuals to do something. Just don’t get burned like Coldplay!

    Posted by: cody · Feb 9, 10:01 AM · #

15. Whoa. Whence came this desire to visit MerrY Site Of Repose and Edification? Your wings impel you to venture long distances, sure, but aren’t you skeptical of the goings-on at this place?

    Posted by: Carl · Feb 9, 11:32 AM · #

16. That’s the beauty of it, Carl. Owl is neither skeptic nor cultist. Pure science lies ahead!

    Posted by: cody · Feb 9, 11:43 AM · #

17. Pure something, for sure.

    Posted by: meniscusmerangue · Feb 9, 12:08 PM · #

18. Smartass. But not to worry… the going-to-Mecca blog is such a done genre that I may not choose to contribute. That’s what I meant about going AWOWL.

    Whence the desire? It was just a matter of time. Carl, a couple of weeks ago in casual convo, CP said to me that of course I love ashtanga too much not to make a trip to the source before proceeding with any major life decisions. I sent of my KPJAYI registration immediately. Power of suggestion?

    Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 9, 12:13 PM · #

19. Oh and CP, while you do live simply for a successful businessman and family guy, I dispute that you are “neutral” on the matter of carbon. When I started this little side-project two years ago, on the commodification of air that leads to the “manufacture” and distrubution of carbon offsets, I thought offsets were nothing more than moral indulgences for the 21st century.

    But… nevertheless like so many others, I’ve changed. I used to value travel above most everything else and do a lot of it, but now I’m pretty cagey about getting on airplanes and driving all over the place because they’re insanely harmful activities in environmental terms. I didn’t set out to save the planet or anything, but the more I know about climate change and carbon, the more I’m different.

    Meanwhile, I love these insider ashtangis who get on airplanes every week, and send us dispatches of how they can feel the “vibration” of the “planet” in hawai’i and the “energy” of “mother earth” in this or that remote hot spring. Anyone want to drop a carbon calculator in their flickrstreams, be my guest.

    Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 9, 12:19 PM · #

20. That’s just unconscious enviro-humor for you. My research into carbon trading revealed a lot of skepticism out there on the concept.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11359

    Don’t get me wrong – my carbon footprint is decidedly not neutral. Hell, just the energy required to keep me well-heeled in capt. morgan’s private stock is probably horrible.

    But like any good Bostonian, I bristle at the thought of leaving the cozy confines of rt. 128 – my provincialism unwittingly helping to save the planet.

    Posted by: cody · Feb 9, 12:31 PM · #

21. There’s always the tramp steamer option, for those who want to avoid air travel and minimize carbon offsets. Steamers don’t really tramp around much anymore, but shuttle tirelessly back and forth between points A and B. But there’s still a certain amount of romance in taking a berth aboard a slow ship. I wonder how practice must be with the deck rolling very gently. Maybe I should find out for myself.

    Posted by: Carl · Feb 9, 01:06 PM · #

22. Okokokokok. It’s all becoming clear. CP and Karen love pirates. I love ghost ships. Carl loves Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. We all love low emissions vehicles.

    Crap! Why am I going to India when we can start the very first Ashtanga Yoga Semester at Sea??? We all know the vessel, though hauling it up from the floor of Lake Huron might be a travail. Also, my father, who refuses to retire, says he’ll consider easing off work if he can find a job as cruise ship chaplain. We can teach him some sanskrit prayers and tell him they’re really ancient Hebrew invocations of I Am. Meanwhile, I seem the obvious candidate to ride around in the bird’s nest looking for shore.

    CP, I know you’re going to want to just sail back and forth in Boston Harbor the whole time, but several people on board are going to need to harness the wave action of open sea to learn those cursed backbend tricks. Don’t worry, you can drink all the Cap’n Morgan you like to take the edge off, as this voyage is clearly going transatlantic.

    The SS Kali Yuga has an open admissions policy. Send in your registration before it’s too late!

    Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 9, 01:41 PM · #

23. 1. With registration enclose photograph and fee (non-refundable) of $2500 to be paid in dubloons at dockside between 3.30 – 3.44 am on last friday of each month (not including moondays and crew leave); monthly fee thereafter is per share of plunder (including booty acquired via ‘intensives’).

    2. Cabin facilities are available for Authorized and Certified buccaneers only. Other passengers can be accommodated in the hold but must appreciate that passage to designated port Navasanau only is included in fee. All other destinations, excursions etc are at the discretion of the Captain and Petty Officers, irrespective of what drunken boatswains’ may intimate.

    3. Passengers should not board with the intention of acquiring a cabin berth. Upgrade is by invitation only, although a minimum of 6 voyages, where an adequate adptitude for the accruement of swag (including Euros) is exhibited, should be enough to ease open the doors of the upper decks.

    4.All Authorized and Certified buccaneers are to remain mindful of the ship’s charter whenever they are on land. Associated freebooters, such as Capatins ‘Pranainapana’ Freeman and Isokay Miele, of HMS Teacher Intevsive and MM Full Vinyasa respectively, may do as they please. Don’t ask, parampara conditions apply).

    5. Matthew ‘PancaAhamkara’ Sweeney is to be captured and keel- hauled on sight. Automatic cabin satus and a bounty of 5000 golden Laxmis (or an offset of no less than 17 6th series incarnations) will be award to the salty svana who captures this impudent asura.

    Posted by: meniscusmerangue · Feb 10, 02:45 AM · #

24. 6. Cabaret girls and contraband strictly prohibited.

    7. In the event the ship should take on water or, god forbid, sink, DO NOT PANIC. You are all far stronger swimmers than you realize and will stay afloat just fine.

    Posted by: (0v0) · Feb 10, 09:03 PM · #

25. I am a cabaret girl deep down inside, so you’re saying I cannot come? ;-(

    Posted by: Fatou · Feb 10, 10:02 PM · #

26. On the contrary! You are most welcome.

    Posted by: meniscusmerangue · Feb 11, 02:21 AM · #

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