I'm Having More CFS Relapses

Luke Ford writes:

Since I’ve started Alexander Technique teacher training, I’ve been having more Chronic Fatigue Syndrome relapses than normal.

Why? Because I’m pushing myself more.

I used to arrange my life so I could stay home 90% of the time and work from my computer. Now I drive to school every day and learn the Technique and then drive home and work like mad to pay the bills.

I get up every morning before six and go to shul. Then I go to yoga almost every night.

It’s a full schedule for a frail man and every few weeks, I collapse into exhaustion and don’t leave the house for a few days.

 

Heshy Fried Of Frum Satire

Luke Ford writes: 

Heshy Fried operates FrumSatire.net.

I hung out with Heshy for four hours Sunday night.

Things started out in the hovel and then moved to Haifa restaurant on Pico Blvd.

Luke: “Heshy, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?”

Heshy shakes his head. “No idea. There was a time when I wanted to be a professional mountain biker.”

“I went through the extreme sports. I wanted to be one of those guys in the extreme games drinking Mountain Dew and getting those really hot skater girls.”

Luke: “I read on your Wikipedia entry that your mother died of cancer when you were six. Was she sick for a long time?”

 

Israeli Sex Under False Pretenses

Luke Ford writes:

Here’s a hilarious story from Israel: “A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape by deception after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.”

Oy, what will the goyim think?

Oy, did I ever get things from women under false pretenses? Did I pretend to be Orthodox prior to completing my Orthodox conversion?

I don’t think I want to answer these questions.

Prior to 2009, most people in my life assumed I had already completed my Orthodox conversion because, for all intents and purposes, I lived as an Orthodox Jew.

 

What's Essential To You Is Not To Me

Luke Ford writes:

I often get people emailing in about blog posts and videos I’ve made. They want changes. They have corrections. They think I’ve been unfair. They offer feedback.

What they don’t have, most of the time, is a link to the blog post or video in question.

They don’t realize that the blog post they’ve been worrying about is not on my mind. They act as though what absorbs them absorbs me too.

It doesn’t.

 

You Did What Was In Your Heart

Luke Ford writes:

I just watched all four episodes of the BBC drama North & South, set in 19th Century England.

It was very romantic and charming and traditional. Reminded me a bit of Orthodox Judaism, until these goyim started excusing each other’s bad behavior with the phrase, “You did what was in your heart.”

Oy, how I hated that phrase growing up. When somebody would do something bloody stupid, all the good Christians around me would excuse his behavior — if they were so inclined — with the phrase, “He did what was in his heart.”

What nonsense! Who cares if he did what was in his heart? If I did what was in my heart, I’d be doing a great deal of fornicating and very little else.

 

Mr President @ Healthcare Summit

Luke Ford writes: 

Did you notice how during the healthcare summit yesterday all the politicians called Barack Obama “Mr. President” but Barack called all the other politicians by their first names?

On his radio show yesterday, Dennis Prager said he knows many politicians well but he never calls them by their first name in public. He knows many clergy well but in public he calls them “Pastor” or “Father” or “Rabbi”.

When the president said to John McCain, “We’re not campaigning anymore”, it was a demeaning response. It was saying that your points are not worthy of rebuttal. Your criticisms are just “talking points”.

 

Kundalini Yoga Vs Alexander Technique

Luke Ford writes: 

A lot of people ask me at yoga how I reconcile my yoga with my Orthodox Judaism.

“I don’t,” is my favorite response. I prefer to respect the integrity of the two systems and I don’t bother with integrating them. I have next to no interest in Jewish mysticism and next to no interest in the theory behind the yoga I’m doing.

I don’t take yoga that seriously. I do it because it feels good. It’s a pleasant change from my hovel. Yoga smells good, looks good, is filled with good-looking people, and everybody is nice to me and I don’t feel like a right wally there.

I wish somebody would ask me how I reconcile my yoga with my Alexander Technique. There’s a ripe field for discussion.

In many ways, Alexander and yoga are opposites. Kundalini Yoga, the brand of yoga I practice, is all about breath manipulation aka conscious breathing. Alexander Technique is against breath manipulation. It favors unconscious breathing.