In yoga class this morning, the boy next to me had an ankle tattoo: So it goes. It’s the classic refrain from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. I thought: What a perfect mantra. It says everything and nothing, same as yoga, same as meditation.
After class, I had an opportunity to chat with the studio owner, a woman I call the Reluctant Yoga Mogul for her reticent manner and burgeoning yoga business. I know from my dealings with her at Cleveland Yoga, Tami’s business plan is: Do the Right Thing. If you have punches left on your pass and your pass has expired, she’ll extend your pass. If you forgot to bring your credit card and need to purchase a class, no problem. Pay online when you get home. Today, Tami was hosting a Kenyan yogi named Walter whom she had meet through the African Yoga Project. She was pleased with the class he taught because he had emphasized the connection between a yoga practice and tikkun olam (my words, not Tami’s). But tikkun olam is what she meant. It’s our duty to repair the world. Yoga means union and when you can feel an undercurrent of connectedness between doing good for the outward world and healing ourselves on the inside, that is when yoga happens.
So it goes. Namaste. And thanks Mr. Vonnegut.
