This would make for an epic toast. You should do it.

Birds, yes, but it doesn't take much — she already knows more about birds than probably anyone (other than me) on this forum does. She teaches nature classes; she just doesn't have the long-term history of focus on birds.

Bridge, I suspect we'll keep separate. No easy way to combine that interest without investing a great deal of time, and no need to. Even as she will always have her yoga workshops and retreats, I will have my NABCs and the like. I envision us trying to be together as much as is reasonable, but knowing that combining every aspect of our lives isn't at all reasonable. (I will say our lives will almost certainly converge much more than most people would guess from knowing our interests right now — everything we have done together feels right.)

But basically, just about everything I care about, she cares at least to learn about, and that goes the other way as well. (I had my first yoga lesson this morning.) But learning about isn't doing. Like POG — she wants to understand this whole world, in part because it's mine, but she will not post here unless I ask her to, as with this well right now.

She's probably more competitive than I am at heart — more type A. But several years of not only doing yoga, but adopting all of that approach to life, makes that sort of a theoretical matter only.

To follow up, I'll do a toast in return of almost anything you want.

atakdevi, why did you leave Wall Street? How long did you spend in finance and in what roles? Did you spend your entire career at one type of firm (bank, hedge fund, securities broker, etc.)? If not, which did you prefer?

You and the woman really seem to have a good relationship, but, TMI dude.

(I may or may not have read your post as thoroughly as I might have.)

The answer to the first question probably lies in the problem of what we mean exactly by philosophy. I think it's arguable that we should just use the term to mean the tradition of thought originating in ancient Greece. As such, the idea of 'eastern philosophy' is somewhere between deeply problematic and inherently nonsensical. Traditions of thought in India and China (why and to what extent we should lump these together is another issue) have developed along separate lines and tackled different questions using different methods, both to one another, and to those that developed in Europe.

Thus you have to be very careful by the term philosophy when applying it to something like the intellectual associations of yoga, because the danger is that you import all those assumptions about what philosophy is that originate from the western tradition, and thereby miss entirely the point of what it is that yoga is engaging with and trying to do.

Thus I think that you can rephrase your question as: 'Why is there an association at all between physical practices and mental practices?' To which the answer might be, 'as a mental and physical being, how could there not be an association between the mind and the body?'


As to falun gong, I know very little, but totalitarian states have traditionally had little truck with alternate sources of authority and legitimacy such as religion, where they can't harness them as tools of the state. AIUI, Communist China has had an ambivalent relationship to Chinese traditions - sometimes looking at them as the sort of feudal tradition that communism seeks to overturn, more latterly embracing them again.

Totally unrelatedly, I have read that, whilst it is generally a bunch of old people dancing in the park, in the hands of a master, Tai chi is _the_ deadliest martial art.

I once took a course from Anthony Burgess, best known for his novel Clockwork Orange. In one of his many digressions he described all of his previous occupations and attempts at careers, including foreign diplomat, musician and composer. He fell into writing as sort of a last resort.

I mention this because I thought your story, woven throughout this thread, was as compelling as a good memoir or novel. The law school stories took me back to L1, Scott Turow's first book. The birding aspects made me think of Bird of Life, Bird of Death, Maslow's terrific memoir of his search for the quetzal. The parenting sections reminded me of Eggers' Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius. Plus you have fascinating experiences as a serious player of games, kayaker, to say nothing of both your prodigious test-taking skills and experiences as a trainer.

I have a professional relationship with a literary agent who has sold quite a few memoirs if you are interested in pursuing this...of course there is that problem with writer's block, but it seems to be less a factor when telling your own story.
It's a tale, while hardly ended, which even has a natural and upbeat ending. I say go for it.

i bet atak could write about 70% of a good memoir

yooo attackdevi, hows it going? congrats on finding each other. the way attackdog speaks, you guys will last


sooooo on a side note. i just applied for a job looking for a yoga instructor. they responded by asking if i was certified. how hard is it to get certified? are you able to do that? i live pretttty close to boston. thanks

Very brief check-in, as devi and I seem to be spending every waking moment either scrambling to rearrange our lives or, frankly, reveling in the ride:

I'm still not sure what devi will be interested in talking about — for a while she was saying it was my well so she wouldn't want to get into stuff about her and her stuff, but she does love to talk so who knows. That will happen some time, I think I can promise, but still don't know when.

Daneus's 1257 brings to mind: She wanted to see some more of what POG is about so I showed here a couple werewolf games, selecting specifically a couple I modded. After reading them she declared that I need to write — I think she'll be very much against me taking a math-ish or corporate looking Boston job, and writing works well. I don't know what exactly I could write that people would actually want to see — I'm not objective, obviously, but it doesn't seem to me that "my story" is a marketable thing, and beyond that ... well, it's a new question to which I don't have the answer. But devi's positive attitude about essentially everything may well help me do something along those lines.

(For tiding things over until then, I'm also looking into substitute teaching, and teaching at an Audubon preserve where devi has worked — I do miss it.)

We've started having hiccups in the winning over of the younger daughter, but that changes so rapidly I should probably wait until it settles some more before claiming I can say anything sensible about it.

Who could have known when I started the well that I'd be expounding on how to blend families?

atak,

memoirs are marketable for all sorts of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with whether the "story" of a particular memoirist's life is in fact especially remarkable (or, even more to the point, having nothing to do with whether the "story" is regarded by the memoirist as remarkable). For example, a memoir might be well written and uplifting without being a wound-up page turner.

You really are an excellent writer, so don't shut that door without considering whether you have something interesting to say regardless of the plot.

- Hoya

+1

You're bright, you have a great way with words, and I think your life is reasonably compelling from start to finish that you could make it interesting without having do anything omg so amazing.

You could probably lift entire posts from this thread and connect the dots together

The only issue would be the 12wpm

Thanks, cph. I guess that post came off a bit wrong — I'm not shutting that door at all. When devi said she thought I should write, I accepted immediately that she was right; I've just yet to work out the details. But give me a year and I'll have something either ready to go, or out there — I have that much confidence (which comes through her, but so what).

If some of it arises directly from this well, wonderful. If not — still wonderful.

(There is irony in that I got to where I am, in so many ways, because I couldn't bring myself to write that paper. I get that; depending on exactly where it goes, that can even be part of the tale, but regardless it's part of me. That's fine too.)

Lol, I did think of that...

I've been trying to get 'pup to learn to type but he refuses, arguing that he's "fast enough" with his hunting and pecking. Child, I beg to differ...

When I was a teenager, I think it was, the talk about voice recognition replacing typing "within five years" began. I'm not sure whether it's still "within five years" or has been pushed back further now, but I predict that within ten there will be a "google transcribe" site, and in fifteen it will work fairly well.

Not waiting for that, obviously; just laying out my prognostication for the day.

Have you not heard of the company Nuance?

Some voice to text isn't all that bad.

HOYA


HOW ARE YOU STILL A LAWYER?

Sorry for the sidetrack atak but c'mon bro, this post may have well have been aimed at yourself.

I'm not much younger than you. Voice recognition has been "5 years away" for as long as I can remember.

voice recognition is 5 years away fwiw

all the time

along with automatic translation afaik

when i was 13, i was afraid we'd have self-driving cars soon and i wouldn't get to experience driving.

first world fears

nope! i was actually living in a 3rd world country at the time

Please, sir, I want some more..

ok atakdevi, i guess im on my own with this yoga place.