I’m in a mood of deliberately ignoring all the ghastly stuff in favor of just “being here” with my son Sean and grandkids. However, two pieces hit hard today, particularly in view of the difference between them.
Dalai Lama: On The Mass Brainwashing of Society
“War is deliberate killing of human beings.”
and
US Marine who Invaded Iraq: Only Iraqis can Understand Pure Evil, Genocide US has Waged on their Nation
So hard to take this in. So hard not to take this in.
Today, we’re all going over to a friend’s house to “watch the Patriot Game.” Ye gods! Really? This will be the first time I’ve ever been in a house where people are rabid about “their” football team. Plus, the first time I’ve ever been in a house where its occupants were watching a football game, period!
Okay Ann. Let go, let go. Notice your judgments. Let them go. Marvelous opportunity to “be here now” — no matter what!
Meanwhile, this morning, I told Sean I wanted to take a few pics of him gearing up for his daily bike ride. (Today’s will be only about an hour, and somewhere around 21 or 22 miles.) About 18 months ago, he joined the “Monsters,” a bike club with what did he tell me, 300 members? two dozen of whom ride with him regularly, including “centuries,” (100 miles plus) on which Sean averages nearly 20 mph for five hours!
A few years ago I told him that, with five planets in Taurus, he needed to get in touch with his body! So he did — with a vengeance! — and has now not only lost 30 pounds but completely re-sculpted his form, via yoga and cycling. The Monsters solitary and group exploits are documented in detail on Strava.com. I was struck, when he showed me the strava site, how it is such a perfect example of the kind of astonishing precision and analysis expected from the generation born with him (and his brother Colin) during the rare Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo (1964-1968). Plus, what a subculture serious cycling is!
(Sean works as a “printable software engineer” for IBM, another very Uranus/Pluto in Virgo occupation. I.e., he “writes code.”)
I find it mindboggling, to think about the world in terms of billions and billions of subcultures, lots them detailed to the hilt, unaware of each other, and all of them fostered by the Internet.
In terms of his yoga focus, Sean and I are going to do a three-day retreat together at Kripalu, in western Massachusetts, starting tomorrow.
Here’s my boy, gearing up to set out for his solitary ride on his very lightweight bike this fairly cold December morning.
Without head gear.
With head gear.
The bike’s computer tracks all sorts of data . . .
proud mama