He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.
Lao Tzu
...I have very little to say...so this is gonna go on for a while...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 1:1
...have always loved Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark album...despite always disliking that really slick L.A. production kinda sound....but, then, that’s kinda what Court and Spark’s about: she trades her guitar player boyfriend with the madman’s soul for the city of the fallen angels...as her friend David Geffen gives up feeling unfettered and alive in gay Paris for stroking the star maker machinery behind the popular songs...turning to surfaces because depths and ideals have gotten too painful....and yet, it turns out the superficial life sucks, too...since, even at the most stylish and faceless people’s parties, the old emotions and desperate search for love and contentment keep welling up....so, in the end, she ends up with jazz and the therapist’s couch....I can relate...
...speaking of surfaces...finally saw Enlighten Up!...okay, actually, I’m watching it as I write this...while also eating my dinner...yeah, I know, not mindful at all...though, for what it’s worth, my dinner’s vegetarian...unlike my lunch....so it goes....anyway, this filmmaker sends this guy who has no particular interest in spirituality on a spiritual quest...which, to me, seems somewhat self-evidently silly...and—big surprise—he doesn’t end up having a spiritual experience...not even after sampling this vast yogic smorgasbord, ranging from your most fundamentalist religious kinda scenes to your most crassly superficial gym class kinda scenes to your most totally style-conscious new agey kinda scenes...not to mention all the disagreements about the history and definition of yoga, as well as the ubiquity of practitioners who don’t seem to know or care....raising, I'm told, all kinds of major, troubling questions...
...whatever...personally, I got into the yoga thing because I thought practicing in ways that made sense to me, and avoiding those that didn't, might have a positive affect on my life...and, as it turns out, it has...in some ways I didn’t anticipate, even...so I’m gonna keep doing it...no big whoop...
...gotta admit, though, in recent months I've mostly been trying to counteract the effects of sitting on the crummy beaten up futon couch in my apartment...lumpy as a gigantic, lopsided bag of potatoes on top of a bent frame...but, what the hell, it was there when I moved in...and filled a need, as I’d just returned the easy chair I’d been using in my last place to the dumpster where I found it....seriously, there was nothing wrong with it, then, other than a stain...and my chair before that one was this old recliner, which was basically okay except that I kept finding nuts and bolts and things every time I cleaned under it...I mean, lots of them...like more than you’d think would even be part of a chair in the first place...so, it seemed like only a matter of time before it collapsed, causing untold injury...and, when I saw the one with the stain out by the dumpster...which couldn’t’ve been placed there more than a few hours earlier...y’know....anyway, it started falling apart, as well, and most likely wouldn’t have survived the trip to the new place, and so began the physically abusive relationship between the old futon couch and me, which lasted until...
...one rainy Saturday morning...when I got in the car and drove to..............................................IKEA...yes, dear friends and readers...IKEA...and, before I left, made a vow never again to shop anywhere other than IKEA....if they don’t sell it at IKEA, I don’t want it....am even quitting the yoga thing in favor of whatever traditional Swedish equivalent to yoga they offer at IKEA....this blog will soon be renamed Whatever Traditional Swedish Equivalent to Yoga They Offer at IKEA for Cynics...which, I believe, will make it the first and only whatever traditional Swedish equivalent to yoga they offer at IKEA blog on the interwebs....and, thus, more cutting edge than ever...not to mention written...like this post right now...while sitting in my new IKEA chair...with matching IKEA footrest...and ooooooh is it a cool chair...and really not difficult to assemble at all...
....only trouble is, now I gotta make the rest of the room worthy of the chair...which could take a while...
Lao Tzu
...I have very little to say...so this is gonna go on for a while...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 1:1
...have always loved Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark album...despite always disliking that really slick L.A. production kinda sound....but, then, that’s kinda what Court and Spark’s about: she trades her guitar player boyfriend with the madman’s soul for the city of the fallen angels...as her friend David Geffen gives up feeling unfettered and alive in gay Paris for stroking the star maker machinery behind the popular songs...turning to surfaces because depths and ideals have gotten too painful....and yet, it turns out the superficial life sucks, too...since, even at the most stylish and faceless people’s parties, the old emotions and desperate search for love and contentment keep welling up....so, in the end, she ends up with jazz and the therapist’s couch....I can relate...
...speaking of surfaces...finally saw Enlighten Up!...okay, actually, I’m watching it as I write this...while also eating my dinner...yeah, I know, not mindful at all...though, for what it’s worth, my dinner’s vegetarian...unlike my lunch....so it goes....anyway, this filmmaker sends this guy who has no particular interest in spirituality on a spiritual quest...which, to me, seems somewhat self-evidently silly...and—big surprise—he doesn’t end up having a spiritual experience...not even after sampling this vast yogic smorgasbord, ranging from your most fundamentalist religious kinda scenes to your most crassly superficial gym class kinda scenes to your most totally style-conscious new agey kinda scenes...not to mention all the disagreements about the history and definition of yoga, as well as the ubiquity of practitioners who don’t seem to know or care....raising, I'm told, all kinds of major, troubling questions...
...whatever...personally, I got into the yoga thing because I thought practicing in ways that made sense to me, and avoiding those that didn't, might have a positive affect on my life...and, as it turns out, it has...in some ways I didn’t anticipate, even...so I’m gonna keep doing it...no big whoop...
...gotta admit, though, in recent months I've mostly been trying to counteract the effects of sitting on the crummy beaten up futon couch in my apartment...lumpy as a gigantic, lopsided bag of potatoes on top of a bent frame...but, what the hell, it was there when I moved in...and filled a need, as I’d just returned the easy chair I’d been using in my last place to the dumpster where I found it....seriously, there was nothing wrong with it, then, other than a stain...and my chair before that one was this old recliner, which was basically okay except that I kept finding nuts and bolts and things every time I cleaned under it...I mean, lots of them...like more than you’d think would even be part of a chair in the first place...so, it seemed like only a matter of time before it collapsed, causing untold injury...and, when I saw the one with the stain out by the dumpster...which couldn’t’ve been placed there more than a few hours earlier...y’know....anyway, it started falling apart, as well, and most likely wouldn’t have survived the trip to the new place, and so began the physically abusive relationship between the old futon couch and me, which lasted until...
...one rainy Saturday morning...when I got in the car and drove to..............................................IKEA...yes, dear friends and readers...IKEA...and, before I left, made a vow never again to shop anywhere other than IKEA....if they don’t sell it at IKEA, I don’t want it....am even quitting the yoga thing in favor of whatever traditional Swedish equivalent to yoga they offer at IKEA....this blog will soon be renamed Whatever Traditional Swedish Equivalent to Yoga They Offer at IKEA for Cynics...which, I believe, will make it the first and only whatever traditional Swedish equivalent to yoga they offer at IKEA blog on the interwebs....and, thus, more cutting edge than ever...not to mention written...like this post right now...while sitting in my new IKEA chair...with matching IKEA footrest...and ooooooh is it a cool chair...and really not difficult to assemble at all...
....only trouble is, now I gotta make the rest of the room worthy of the chair...which could take a while...
21 comments:
Pondering the really big questions of life using furniture as a metaphor was inspiring,the whole spiritual journey summed up in "now I gotta make the rest of the room worthy of the chair...which could take a while..." is a revelation.
Still smiling
..I got into the vodka one night...
you should come read Svasti's guest post on my blog about what Nick said and all the comments....
Ikea....sigh....
I used to live in a metropolitan area that had a reasonably accessible Ikea. I loved going there. The smooth lines, rounded corners, light and brilliant wood and chrome and the bold colors and prints.
I now live in a place where people actually use the terms, Court and Spark. It ain't Bugtussle, but damn near.
My first introduction to Yoga was through literature. It was in Robert Heinlein's "To Sail Beyond the Sunset," and "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls." And in it the Heroine who is very longed lived, practiced Yoga as a way to increase her longevity and youthfull appearance.
Goodness, are you this much fun in person? Doesn't matter, this is wonderful stuff.
My husband dragged ... dragged! ... me to Ikea once, and very much lived to regret it. Took him HOURS to get me out ... you could sleep in those tiny sweet bedrooms they've set up, and get a meal in the cafe and bring it back to one of those little kitchens - who needs to leave? Off to go sit in my IKEA CHAIR by the front window and watch the snow - Next time I go to Ikea, I will look for the cynic doing yoga in one of the cute tiny living rooms, and ask if it is you :)
i probably don't say it often enough, but you crack me up!!!
Ikea is a vortex that sucks you in........
Yes, that's one of my favorite albums, too, mostly because "Free Man in Paris" and "Help Me" are two of the greatest songs of all time.
Never been to IKEA, and probably never will, since I'm starting to really enjoy shocking people by saying "Never been to IKEA".
Bob Weisenberg
YogaDemystified.com
Here's a funny article about IKEA: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/10/19/ikea_nightmare/index.html
I think the Swedish/IKEA version of yoga probably has a charming name like Borggo or Flagatosana.
Enjoy the chair & footrest. For all the flak Ikea seems to get, they do have decent, easy-to-assemble products!
I love Ikea. I love furniture. I love cynicism.
Now to find some vegetarian Swedish meatballs....
Here you go, Melissa:
Vegetarian Swedish Meatballs
http://thevoraciousvegan.blogspot.com/2009/03/vegan-swedish-meatballs.html
Or, if you don't like those, Google has a whole page of other alternatives: http://bit.ly/6J9BsG
Bob Weisenberg
SwedishMeatballsDemystified.com
Enlighten Up! was a pretty mediocre movie. It went for the titillation rather than the depth & beauty of the practice. When the guy actually started practicing regularly, he did open up pretty quickly. But he didn't have a daily practice until the end of the movie. It don't work if you don't work it.
gotta be honest, here...cause you always are...I still love our Ikea curtains that we bought eons ago and have been in 3 different homes...but the Ikea bunk beds we put together for our girls when they were little nearly killed my husband and me! Then again at this very moment, I am typing on my laptop with my feet on our good old Ikea coffee table...the 90's were mostly good to us...so good news for you...Ikea stuff lasts a long time (I can comfortably say at least 16 years...and still holding steady)
Enjoy your comfy furniture...I think I'll avoid that movie...and Joni, well she had her great albums and her ok albums...you know like Ikea...sometimes we over complicate things that would be better left simple.
wow...long reply.
gentle steps,
laura
That's great Bob, love the recipe and I've never been to Ikea either.
Dr.J...what a great post. Word Verification: Impocy.
I liked your repetition of the word IKEA. I had to move twice this summer and that converted me to IKEA. However, I paid someone to assemble the furniture for me because there is not enough yoga in the world to calm me down enough to assemble IKEA furniture. However, what I liked about your post was how you embody my new theory about staying in the game. You seem to understand more than most people that there are no rules. You just have to keep going with yoga and it will somehow change you, even if you multitask while sitting in an IKEA chair.
Hi drjay...so happy to be milling about your blog again...
I pined over a leather sofa at Ikea until I finally forgot about it. You have rekindled the flame and I again yearn for a sofa that doesn't need a cheesy cover to protect it from Lucy fur. However, a recliner's sounding awfully good, too.
Hey, what gives with the comfy chair anyway? I thought you yoga folks just sat on mats...hmmm...
Hi, earthtoholly.
You're right. We just sit on Yoga mats all day. But we've developed the ability to project ourselves into imagining we're on a comfy chair. It's sort of like levitation but less risky.
Bob Weisenberg
YogaDemystified.com
Hi Bob,
Holy cow! Sounds then like drjay's out a couple hundred bucks and has a comfy chair on his hands that he doesn't really need.
Donations of comfy chairs to Earth to Holly are welcome!
Nice to meet ya, Bob :o)
ha ha, loving your love for IKEA Dr. Jay, my bachelors degree is in Industrial Design, and even if sometimes their furniture is not long-lasting it sure worth the price and love their clean design, also the fact that makes you feel like you can actually construct furniture yourself... i LOVE that store too... the only complain i have from IKEA's pieces is their chest of drawers, i am going through the 3rd one in 5 years, the bottoms of the drawers tend to break, or maybe my clothes are too heavy? dunno...
but let me tell you, when i moved to the US from Mexico City back in 2001, i arrive here with 2 suitcases that had clothes and my drawing materials... so i had to start from zero to put a new apartment, if it wouldn't be for IKEA and thrift stores, i wouldn't have where to seat, sleep, eat, or play... at least 3/4 of my pieces of furniture are IKEA acquisitions, the other 1/4 from "furniture with history" meaning from thrift stores
hope you are reading comfy on your swedish chair :D
I'm envious. I told my husband when he had a week off in November that I wanted to head up to Portland to finally check out the IKEA store that opened last year (or maybe the year before that). He said: "What's an ikea?" and neither of us brought up my idea or his lack of ikea idea again. I will have to drive up one day, especially after reading that it is worthy of considering a blog name change!
Your room's shaping up. Soon you can court and spark a woman there in style. (i didn't read all the comments ahead of mine so if someone else already said that then maybe you should consider trysting with twins)
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