I stayed in bed till 10 am LA time. I made my smoothies for two days. Damon made me a fried egg, and I didn’t eat my usual breakfast, my smoothie.
At 1 pm, Damon, Cylin, and I went out. The first stop was to pick up August, sitting for a practice ACT exam for four hours, where he does his tutoring for the test. Then off to get up some Chinese food. Cylin tried to make a reservation, but it was already booked. We were told that the wait time was an hour, so Cylin ordered take-out. It took about an hour to get the food, which suggests that it would have been a two-hour wait before we got to eat if we had been seated. While we waited, Damon went over to Bloomingdales to pick up a shirt he ordered, and Cylin and I went to a local coffee shop, not Starbucks. She says their brand is a little too bitter for her.
As we walked to get the coffee, I glanced at my reflection in the store windows. I noticed that when I step out on my right foot, I lean forward. I don’t do that with my left foot. When I corrected that little problem, I saw that my gate was even. I have been struggling with this problem for a while. I thought the problem was just with my right hip being too far forward. Or, in a worst-case scenario, my left leg being too short, as every medical practitioner has told me, would be the case with my hip problem. Ha! The problem, well at least some of the problem, is with my right shoulder.
It was chow time when we got home. Well, that food was worth whatever time and money it cost. After lunch, I took a nap. We had a 6:30 pm appointment for a sound bath.
The sound bath was located in a storefront on a busy street. The floor was covered in carpeting; we took off our shoes. When the place is doing a sound bath, the rugs are not there, and it operates as a crystal shop. We got there early enough to be as far away from the street as possible to reduce noise disturbance.
Before the session started, this unbelievably well-built chick was walking around, showing a breathing exercise that would be the first 8 minutes of the session. Breathe in by extending the abdomen, a Buddha breath, and then the chest. Then breathe out. This was all supposed to be done through the mouth. Yuck! Also, everyone, men and women were fixated on her great body. That flat belly and gorgeous breast went up and down with each breath. This woman was in the wrong business. She agitated one, and all alike; women, as they compare their bodies to hers, and men - -- Do you need the details?
Then a woman stood up and presented artificially created crystals that are supposed to have some unique frequency. The session started with eight minutes of breathing. I did it my way: I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth slowly, rather than in and out through the mouth and fast as the gorgeous chick instructed. I did what felt right to me.
Then the leader of the session did a guided meditation. Assistants went around placing crystals on our chests and abdomens. The lady with the manufactured crystals put one in each of our upturned palms. Because my feet felt cold, I struggled to get a blanket on them without disturbing the crystals. Of course, I had to move the one in my right hand to arrange the blanket. Then I couldn’t find it. I called for help. Someone came over and helped me.
Then the sound bath started. I thought it was a tape. Cylin told me that the leader and her mother were playing sounding bowls. This was supposed to be a relaxing activity. For me, not so much.
During the guided meditation, she instructed us to picture a set of balance scales into which we were supposed to distribute these bright stones to create balance. Too bad for me. All my stones wound up in the left bowl. That’s where all the problems with my body are, usually. (The pain I have been suffering on this trip is on my right side.) I tried to put some in the right-hand bowl. No, go. It looked like I was facing some darkness. This doesn’t frighten me; I’m good exploring it. I believe darkness is part of the human condition. The only thing we can do is face it in ourselves, sit with it until our reaction to it is reduced to minimal proportions, so we don’t act out all over the place. This approach has worked for me. The idea behind the Buddhist vipassana meditation and the protocol for the healing work I have developed.
Eddie, one of Damon’s good friends, came over after we were home for a while to visit. I hadn’t seen him in years. I’ve known him for over twenty years; he went to Vassar with Damon. He looked much better since I saw him last, happier. He has a new job that is light years better than his old one, and a great new apartment near where Damon lives. Life is looking up for our Eddie.
Damon and Cylin headed for bed after he left, but I wasn’t tired. I stayed up and watched more of Fosse/Verdon. I kept looking for those snippets of dance mixed in with the soap opera. At some point in the show, it is revealed that Fosse was raped by several 40-year-old stripteases in the burlesque where he was working. In those days, his peers thought he was a lucky bastard. The script called for him to recognize that the incident ruined his life. I have no idea if Fosse was aware of the impact of the rape as we are today.
My father’s cousin was ‘seduced’ at the age of 14 by a milkmaid. He was a gorgeous man when I knew him. My dad thought that was a hoot. The man’s life was a mess. How did it take so long for people to figure out the damage having sex with children does.
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