"Not Flexible Enough for Yoga"

Yoga (hatha, as is typically the only branch recognized in the States) is almost always portrayed as this glamourous, sexy, lean, bendy, white women's activity. Images on the cover of YogaJournal and the "yoga attire" associated with the "sport" at Lululemon and Old Navy all reinforce this standard. In almost any conversation I have with people, when yoga is mentioned, there is almost always a response regarding flexibility, and it's usually a self-deprecating statement, too: "Oh, I'm not flexible enough for yoga- I can't even touch my toes, I'd NEVER be able to do THAT!"

Well, as I begin this journey to foundations of understanding the health of the whole person, my first step is getting there- literally- getting on a plane. And even though I know they say that the first step is always the hardest, let me reiterate: plane schedules are not flexible!
Needless to say, even though I was at the airport 3 hours before my flight was to board, and even though I was sitting AT THE GATE, and even though I stood and checked my pack AT THE GATE, I, by some miracle, did NOT get on the plane. And while, at the time, I was able to maintain SOME of the composure us yogis are renowned for, after talking to a few United Airlines reps, and remembering that I no longer have a cell phone, or change for the payphone, and that I would soon miss all of my connecting flights and my pack was probably on it's way to Beijing, I lost it. I found a payphone that took a credit card (what a world we live in, eh?) and frantically dialed... my mother. And then the ticketing agency with whom I had booked. And then I waited. 5 HOURS. There were a number of moments when I thought, "maybe I just won't go to India- it's too complicated, I should just find a program at school, and deal with it..." But how disappointing and anticlimactic and absolutely lame would that have been?! So, after much hassle, and back-and-forth phone calls between my mother, the ticketing agency and I, all the while, borrowing strangers' cell phones and using the airport's curtousy phone, I finally re-booked my flights for the following day. This, however, meant that we did, indeed get *almost* a full refund on the ticket price, but we also had to make up the rather hefty price difference for the new flights, AND, now I had to get myself from Sacramento to San Francisco, to pick up my pack and resume my journey.
**sigh**
At least my luggage didn't leave the country without me.

So after a 2 hour greyhound bus ride to San Francisco, and with the help of a number of perfect strangers, I made it via the BART to the San Francisco airport by about 10pm, to try to get my baggage. Well, as you would expect, the airlines had no representatives at 10pm to help me with my lost baggage, but the DID tell me that I could "come back" in the morning. My mind went quiet. Come back from where? Where am I supposed to go? My flight doesn't leave for 24 hours!
So, here's where all the muck in my mind that began to creep up actually mellowed down. Time to find the lesson(s).
1) Perseverence. Sometimes you just gotta work a little bit harder to get what you want. It's up to you to decide if its worth it, but I've always felt that if it doesn't challenge you, it's not worth it.
2) Be flexible. It's useless to get worked up over having to spend a few extra hours to make something work. Like having to spend a total of 3 hours to get from one airport to another and sleeping on the floor behind a row of plastic chairs of the international terminal.

And while I am VERY grateful that I've been able to contact (almost) all of my reservations in India and that I was even able to get a refund and re-book my flights, I am also acutely aware of just how much privilege this all assumes. My lack of cell phone was a serious inconvenience, but I had other technology which gets wifi and I was able to email everyone I needed to contact. I did have access to money saved up that could cover the difference in the price of my tickets, and I could afford to spend an extra several hours and extra bucks towards a greyhound and the BART. And even beyond the issue of finances, I am a nonthreatening (to most) white woman that did not pose much of a threat to any of the security guards who saw me curled up on the floor of the terminial. Had I been of another cultural descent, perhaps that would not have been the case.

Yogic practices were originally reserved for the elite yogis and sages who could "afford," so to speak, to spend their time seeking higher states of consciousness. They were all men, they were all of the priest class. So when people say, "I can't do yoga, I'm not flexible enough," I can now recognize both the physical, and metaphorical limitations some people face in the pursuit of flexibility, or in the pursuit of yoga. In fact, most yoga practitioners in the West are from a cultural heritage of privilege (cue, image of a group of soccer-mom, housewives at a "hatha power vinyasa" class at 11am on a Thursday...)

In a few BIG cities (San Francisco, Berkeley, New York.. and a few others..) there is a movement called Yoga To The People (www.yogatothepeople.org) that operates at least majorly, if not solely, on a donation basis- crossing at lest some of the access barriers to yoga, though certainly not all. They're good people though. I went to a class in Berkeley last week.

Well- I am going to go try to claim my pack! And the journey continues- may YOUR path be illuminated!