Chamblee54

Bead 055 Miss Gilbert decides to stay at the noname ashram the entire time she is in country. The original plan had been to stay a few weeks, and then do the tourist thing. She sensed that there had been progress, and it was best to build on it. The rest of her life was available to see India.
Part three of this cycle was posted at two in the morning. The hours before the publication were full of activity. When PG got up the next morning, he felt a bit let down. It took most of the day to work through this emotional fatigue.
Bead 056 Even though she is making progress, Miss Gilbert sometimes is reminded of how far she has to go. One morning while meditating, she wonders what color her meditation room was going to be painted. The next step is to try Vipassana meditation, which is an orthodox version. These guys think that using a mantra is cheating.
After dinner one night, Miss Gilbert decides to try Vipassana. A few thousand mosquitoes joined her. The bites gave her a challenge to overcome, and the evening turned out well.
Some say no pain no gain. Sometimes this is true, You can become stronger by ignoring the aching muscles. On the other hand, sometimes pain is a signal that you should lay off. You could be damaging your body/mind/soul by continuing. To be able to tell the difference is more wisdom than many people have.
In 1990, PG had a herniated disc. The L5-S1. He didn’t know how to deal with it, and sciatica developed. An opportunity to go camping on Cumberland Island came up. PG didn’t think he would ever have another opportunity to go, and decided to be tough and deal with the pain. It was a mistake. He was able to recover from the disc problems, but the trip made it much more difficult. Sometimes, pain is a signal to lay off.
Bead 057 Miss Gilbert talks about G-d and faith.
“Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.” – Wendell Berry. That is the plan. The reality is that folks live by the laws of rats and roaches, but think they live by the laws of people privilege. The fun starts when they expect privileged behavior from their neighbors.
Bead 058 This is about prayer, and the banishment of unhealthy thoughts. Miss Gilbert is not going to have unimportant prayers anymore. To a G-d that deals with famine, plague, and the Republican Party, just about any prayer from a privileged divorcee is going to seem unimportant. But it is important to Miss Gilbert, and that is what this book is about. After she is done, the next step is to choose her thoughts. Seven hundred times a day, she says to herself “I will not harbor unhealthy thoughts anymore”.
PG read this a few hours before he wrote about it. His mood swings had been getting worse, with giddyier highs and crashing lows. He was in a bad mood, wondering if his knee would ever quit hurting, wondering if he would ever work again, wondering why on earth he was reading this silly book. Maybe, if he sees it through to the end, it will be worthwhile. If nothing else, it will be a good writing exercise.
Bead 059 When Miss Gilbert is scrubbing the floors of the temple, she talks to Tulsi, an Indian teenager. She is almost 18, which is the age for arranged marriage. She will go to a wedding, wearing a white sari, and somebody’s aunt will come to talk to her, and ask questions. What University are you going to? How much money does your family have? What is your birthday? What are your interests? If the aunt likes the answers, including astrological charts, the girl’s father will be asked if his daughter wants to marry the nephew. This is how they do it in India, and Tulsi does not look forward to it.
In the current debate about gay marriage, some talk about the state of marriage for the last six thousand years. What these people don’t tell you is that arranged marriage is far more common than today’s “traditional marriage”. The concept of a man and woman getting married because they love each other is a fairly recent innovation. In the history of the world, far more marriages have been set up by the families, with no say so from the bride and groom.
Bead 060 The friends of Liz Gilbert are tired of hearing about her busted marriage. Apparently, telling herself to banish unhealthy thoughts seven hundred times a day isn’t working out too good. One friend leads her into this tower, and hands her a list of ten rules for freedom. They all say “let go”, some with more accesorization than others. After she reads the list, she stays in the tower and creates a ritual to help her get over the divorce. “If you bring the right earnestness to your homemade ceremony, G-d will provide the grace. And that is why we need G-d.”
PG has the habit of reading while he eats. The problem with this is reading material like bead 060. It is very rude to throw up in a public restaurant.
Bead 061 Richard leaves the ashram to go back to his home state. He tells Miss Gilbert to find another man.
PG got a phone call from a committee promoting an election scheme. The idea is to raise the sales tax, and use the money for transportation projects. While few would disagree that the roads in the Atlanta area are a disaster, PG is increasingly annoyed at the tactics of the pro tax people. First it was the robocalls. Today, there was a lady, calling for what she said was a survey. There was only one question, and then a sales pitch for the tax scheme. The lady threw made a statement, and asked if that would encourage PG to vote for the scheme. PG said that he didn’t believe the claims the lady was making. The election is sometime in July, and there is going to be a lot of noise made about the tax scheme. If PG votes for the scheme, it will be in spite of, not because of, the phone calls.
Bead 062 Miss Gilbert decides she talks too much. The rest of the time at noname ashram, she is going to be “That quiet girl”.
While the Murray Hill baseball team was losing to the Lincoln Giants, a negro organization, its lockers were pilfered by persons unknown. // The McKinney brothers capsized on Croton Lake. One, unable to swim, seized the other, who could, by the neck. Both gone a hundred years now. // The soothsayer at Coney Island predicted Giuseppe would marry Josephine. But not that, two weeks later, he would gas himself. // At 167th Street, a man in a fine black suit, handkerchief monogrammed H.O., separated, with a train’s help, his head from his body. // Parsons, a lawyer, holds the speed record between New York and Albany. Or rather, “held,” since he is no more. // On East 109th Street, with a wooden bat, Andreo Reso struck, as though it were a ball, the head of his neighbor Frank Fuculora. // Thank you Teju Cole.
Bead 063 One the day after she takes a vow of silence, Miss Gilbert recieves a new work assignment. She is to be “key hostess”. This will require her to have a bubbling personality, and do lots of talking. Somebody, somewhere, has a sick sense of humor.
There is a sundial in Rome, with an inscription in Latin, OMNES FERIUNT ULTIMA NECAT. It refers to the hours that are measured by the sundial. The rough translation: all of them wound, the last one kills.
Bead 064 OK, so maybe being That quiet girl was not such a great idea. Miss Gilbert is going to go forward, maybe speak a little bit less, maybe interrupt less, and just maybe be a better person.
In the bloggingheads talk, Miss Gilbert talks about her days as a magazine reporter. She was often not a nice person. She went in for the cheap joke, the touch of gratuitous snark. As she got older… in moments such as bead 064… Miss Gilbert realized that these were good people she was making fun of. In many ways, they were better people than her. It was much more challenging to write a complimentary piece about someone that you find to be peculiar.
Bead 065 Miss Gilbert describes her duties as the key hostess. There will be two groups coming to the ashram for one week visits. Miss Gilbert will greet them, answer questions, and basically be the cruise director. This is not what she had in mind when she took a vow of silence.
Miss Gilbert writes from a woman’s point of view. Anyone who doubts this should listen to this segment. “I was looking forward to the movie, and then I bought an Oscar de la Renta gown to wear to the premiere, and now I am escatic. It’s all about the dress”.
Bead 066 Most people spend their lives in three states of consciousness… waking, sleeping, and dreaming. A fourth state is turiya, an elevated state that is achieved through religious practice, among other things. Some disciplines say there are more states after that, each more elevated than the one before. The lack of conciousness alteration if one of the frustrations PG feels with Jesus worship.
In 1979, PG wound up in a moonie camp. Camp K was a former Girl Scout camp, located outside of Santa Rosa CA. On Tuesday, the speaker gave an answer to a question, and PG realized that he could not stay with this community. The next day, he got three nickels, and threw the hexagram for the I Ching. One of the lines said ” Go back to your old, “inferior” live with renewed energy and purpose” (not an exact quote) PG took this as an indication that he should leave, which he did on Saturday morning. He was soon back in Georgia, just as slack as ever.
Bead 067 While mentoring the guests, Miss Gilbert wants to watch over them, and put aside thoughts about her own spirtual development. One day, as if by magic, she was transported on the collective efforts of her pilgrims, and wound up in a transcendent state.
While typing the previous sentence, PG started to spell development devilopment. Devil. The bad G-d. Christians claim to be monotheistic, and wind up worshiping a variety of critters . The preacher at redo blue called PG the devil on a number of occasions. If only PG had heard the radio show with Depak Chopra, he would have had the right answer.
Mr. Chopra was promoting a book, and made an appearance on a radio show. The radio man repeated stated that Jesus Christ was his lord and savior, and was rather rude to Mr. Chopra. Finally, without raising his voice or showing anger, Mr. Chopra said “what you say says more about you than it does me”.
Bead 068 The seekers came and went, and Miss Gilbert was given an office job for the rest of her stay. She spends her time meditating blissfully and fooling around with eucalyptus trees.
PG has heard the phrase tree hugger, and has a slight problem with it. In Georgia, many of the trees are pines. If you hug a pine tree, you will be covered in pine sap, and broken bits of bark. It will be unpleasant. Another problem is the vibes from pine trees. They take over a piece of recently cleared land with aggressive enthusiasm. They produce a low quality wood. If you want to feel the essense of a tree, find a willing tree, and put the palms of your hands, on both sides, a few inches away, until you can feel the vibes from it. There is much less cleanup than if you hug one.
Bead 069 Sixty nine is a much loved number. It is twenty three times three. It represents a form of mutually cooperative union. The two numbers are similar, with a circle at one end, and a semi circle on top. Six has the complete circle at the bottom, and the semicircle goes to the right. Six is conservative. Nine has the circle on top, and the flare goes to the left. Nine is liberal. If six turns out to be nine, I don’t mind.
Once Anita Bryant was attacked by a protester, who threw a fruit pie in her face. She was being interviewed for Playboy magazine at the time, and the reporter found the box the pie came in. It cost sixty nine cents. The reporter made a joke about it, and Miss Bryant claimed not to know what he was talking about.
In EPL, Miss Gilbert finds a word in Sanskrit, antevasin. This is a person who lives on the border, who leaves a village to go live by the city limits. Miss Gilbert feels a kinship with this word. She does not want to live where everyone else does, but is not ready to be a hermit in the woods.
Bead 070 You should be wary of a chapter where they make a blanket statement about all the world’s religions in the first sentence. Miss Gilbert burns a few brain cells making generalizations about religion. There is an interesting mistake. The story goes that in 1954, the Catholic Church sent a group to Libya. The instructions were ” DO NOT think that you are going among infidels. Muslims attain salvation too. The ways of Providence are infinite”
Miss Gilbert credits those instructions to Pope Pius XI, aka Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti. This gentleman died February 10, 1939. The Pope in 1954 was Eugenio Marìa Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, who answered to Pius XII. He was the Pope during World War Two, and became a controversial figure. Some say he could have done more to help save Jews.
Bead 071 On her last night in the ashram, Miss Gilbert stays up in a meditation cave.
I have an inspiration blog and i think it’s great the way people express themselves on tumblr. i appreciate the photography and quotes for the beauty and truth they present (although other times, i just reblog stuff because the look nice and there’s nothing wrong with that as well). you are entitled to your own opinion and it’s nice that you’re honest, but there are people out there that do genuinely enjoy those blogs. and just for the record — some of the things i’ve seen on tumblr really have inspired me. i’m more optimistic and it’s nice to know there are people out there that think and look for the same things i do. it’s a nice community to be in (except for those bloggers that only care about gaining followers or becoming tumblr famous).
Bead 072 When she leaves the ashram, there are two poems placed before a picture of Swamiji. One was written early in the stay, and is very cynical. The second was written just before leaving, and is very happy.
Yes, the Republican primary was like a very entertaining circus, but when you get down to it, most people who vote will not be consoled that the robot won out over the clown.
Chapters one, two, and three have been published. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These are Union soldiers from the War Between the States.