As an American there are many things that we are unequivicably the best in the world at... apple pie, movies, fast food, speaking louder and louder in foreign countries with no idea how they could possibly not understand us... and, of course, basketball... and this is where our story begins...
on friday I was invited to take a couple yoga classes from two Indian masters... Master Ananda and Master Suman...
now I still consider myself a beginning yogi but I have been practicing 4-5/week for the last couple of years, only to say that I have been to a fare amount of classes with a variety of teachers. But, with all do respect, these guys were in a totally different league. I felt like I had been playing basketball for the Chilian national team in 1994 and then drew the United States in round one of the 94 Olympics. Jordan, Pippen, Magic, Ewing, Karl Malone... I mean that was simply not fair.
Because basketball is ours, it just is... period. and sure every now and then there will be a Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitski, wait a second, now that I think about it I'm not sure I know any American players currently in the NBA... but you know what I'm saying
and when it comes to yoga... the Indians... well it's just different. I wish I could explain what their bodies could do, how the poses actually really look like their name... for example, when master suman did cobra, well let's just say I didn't want to make any abrupt movements...then there was master ananda's eye exercises, yes just moving my eyes could exhaust me in 15 seconds and then invoke a jolt of energy similar to a double shot of espresso. It reminded me of a scene with yoda and young skywalker... and not only because of the seeming jedi tricks that he could do but also the height difference and the funny accent... it's actually a very good analogy...
anyway, I was the only American, the only one that didn't speak thai, and the only one over 5 feet tall... making it hard to just blend in... so I got lots of direct attention... making me realize that even my most basic poses leave a lot to be desired... And after an hour of both of their classes I was both invigorated and extremely humbled.
Now they were very sweet and patient with me during class and after they were very gracious, thanking me for coming and inviting me to join them for as many classes as I wished while I was here... however I can't help but think they were having a good laugh at the tall white boy who was struggling in his cat/cows... and I have to admit that there was a small but very present part of my wounded ego that wanted nothing more than to remind them how lucky they were that there club didn't have a basketball court... because I would love to see how their perfect posture, superhuman core strength and ridiculous flexibility would help them when I started draining 3's all over their little guru selves.
anyway... it was an amazing experience and I felt so good that after a shower... I decided to get a treat from their snack bar... a big piece of apple pie... however I asked in several times to no avail and then I remembered, I just needed to speak louder...
then two nice guys grabbed me by the arms, escorted me to the door and pointed down the street, and then said several things to me in thai, (an obvious appology for not having what i wanted, and pointed to where I could find a piece of well deserved pie... although I didn't think they needed to push me so strongly in the direction of the pie place... I wasn't really in that big of hurry.
jeff "jordan" baietto
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