Learning how to work with your physician

Today I visited my friend who is a Naturopath, he also works in a vitamin store and people call him on the phone and ask him questions about their health needs. Often the people have a hard time expressing what the problem is or expecting a phone diagnosis to cure something like dizziness which may or may not require a trip to the Neurologist.

It could be that people are impatient. Sometimes they just want to take a pill. They have no idea why they should, they just have gotten used to being told to take for example a blood thinner, but don't want to understand why their blood needs to be thinned.

The patient is for the most part not expected to ask too many questions or the doctor is never expected just sit there and listen to the patient. But what if that were the normal way patient intake was done? Just food for thought.

Watching the Civil War by Ken Burns again...

Thank you PBS! Again I call for the National Endowment for the Arts budget to be tripled!

The Civil War. I probably watch it once a year. Still get choked up when I watch the first few minutes. It starts out by making statements like "three million men fought in it and two percent of the population died in it."

I still can't believe how Ken Burns made it happen. Ken created or popularized the effect of taking a photograph and showing it close up and then slowly fading it with stunning effect. Since there is no footage, all we have is photographs and words, the diaries of so many soldiers and wives. One soldier fought throughout the war until it was over and left a stunning account. His name was Elijah Hunt Rhodes.

I think about Mary Chestnut's words spoken by Julie Harris, who also kept a careful diary documenting it from the standpoint of the South. I also think of the poet Walt Whitman wandering the fields and reporting the horror of it all..and it was horrible.
I hear the voice of outrage of Frederick Douglas' words spoken by Morgan Freeman. Now he is nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Mandella in "Invictus"

If you haven't watched it yet...take it on, take your time. I doubt you will ever forget it.

Cool Like 'Dat

I should have posted this a month ago but...

When a company pays an artist to use their music for a commercial, they must pay them pretty well.

I'm not sure who controls the music rights to the hip-hop group "Digable Planets" but for the first time that I can remember their biggest hit "Rebirth of Cool" is being used in a commerical. The product is Tide. The sub-category product is Coldwater Tide Several hip-hop sites that I researched are upset about it. The commercial shows how you can get the same great cleaning of Tide but wash in cold with their special detergent. The most famous words from the rhyme "I'm Cool Like 'Dat" are heard in a loop as the commercial rolls.

You hate to see any art commercialized but you can't blame the artists for making a little more in royalties.

Somehow I think it's a rite of passage for hip-hop music so I thought it deserved a mention. It's hard to say if it's a positive or a negative event.

Tada! Sana! Tadasana

New Insight! I remember my yoga teacher Mary Dunn saying Tadasana is a pose! That means Tadasana needs as much intention and attention as Sirasana.

Now I'm experimenting with starting my practice with Tadasana. It enables me to even out my consciousness watching the action as much as possible without too much effort.

Mary Dunn-My yoga teacher

With Mary Dunn's guidance the NYC area Institute was built. It was her vision. I can't imagine where Iyengar Yoga would be in the NYC area without her. I studied with her before and after it was built. She was a gigantic figure but at the same time so sweet and funny and kind. She would constantly break up the class with a joke or an observation. When she was demonstrating in the class with you as the model, you longed to hear her exclaim with excitement...Ahhh! When you got the action of the pose she was trying to teach.

David Carradine's passing June 2009

Now after a period of time I am writing about David Carradine. We still don't know how he left his body and if he was responsible or someone else was. We may never know. Here are my thoughts on him.

I have had the privilege to study Shaolin Kung Fu with a real Shaolin monk and I probably would never have if it weren't for the part David Carradine played in bringing the energy of Shaolin to the USA.

Who was that wandering man in the TV series "Kung Fu?" Why was his hand so steady, when facing a rattlesnake? Why did he never panic even though he faced very difficult situations seemingly every episode? Why was he content to sit on the bare earth and play his flute?

The Chinese in positions of power were afraid of the Shaolin Temple because it produced men with seemingly super powers. There is a lot of talk about High Intensity Interval Training or "HIIT" these days and how healthy it is for you. Shaolin monks have been practicing it for hundreds of years.

One reason I really liked David Carradine was he was so authentic. I have to admit when I first learned of his lifestyle, I was disappointed. Later, I grew to have a different kind of affection for him. He was from an acting family and began acting very early. It wasn't long before he was a star.

He lived his life openly. He smoked and did other things that were not in the character of Caine, who he played on the TV series. Like Cain he seemingly was a stranger in a strange land. In the series Caine comes to a new place every week, but by the end he must leave it. He seems to be wandering forever. In a way I think that's who David Carradine was. Like his character, he studied herbs and Tai Chi and meditation. Was the seemingly permanent smirk on his face David sort of saying "how can you be spiritual and carnal at the same time?" Watch me. Be human! Like many actors, he got better as he matured. He was real and vulnerable in his struggles and I think unashamed of being exactly who he was.

An interesting gentleman

Here's a really interesting gentleman. ZahiHawass on twitter, current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Whatever goes on with any dig in Egypt from The Old Kingdom to Alexander the Great's tomb, Mr. Hawass is usually in on it.

You can't deny his passion. I have always loved Ancient Egypt. I once owned a replica of the Temple of Dendur made of cardboard from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The temple was brought here and placed at the Met brick by brick. By the way, Hawass wants every brick returned to Egypt along with many other Egyptian antiquities scattered around the globe.