Shanty, Multi-tasking, Despair
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 03/03/2008 11:02 am by karen“Sea shanty,” I thought during practice this morning. “What’s a sea shanty?”
According to wikipedia:
Sea shanties were shipboard working songs. Shanties flourished from at least the 15th century through the days of steam ships in the first half of the 20th century. Most surviving shanties date from the 19th and, less commonly, 18th centuries.
In the days when human muscles were the only power source available aboard ship, sea shanties served a practical purpose: the rhythm of the song served to synchronize the movements of the sailors as they toiled at repetitive tasks. They also served a social purpose: singing, and listening to song, is pleasant; it alleviates boredom, and lightens the burden of hard work, of which there was no shortage on long voyages.
Hey, repetitive muscular tasks! Just like practice! No wonder I thought of it.
Oh, but there was more to it than that. I was welcomed into the livingroom this morning by a big blob of cat barf. Not a 300-pound-man-sized barf, it’s true — but it was a super fragrant barf. Poor cat. We ran out of his usual food, and I had to give him this fancy pants organic stuff that smells reeks of seafood. And which, despite its organic goodness, seems to have made him incredibly sick.
I washed the floor twice. It dried. Practice began.
Aw, crap, it still smelled like one of the clam shacks we used to go to on the east coast. The plank floors in those places are usually thick, creaky, splintery grey wood, swollen with sea air, and fragrant with spilled clam and lobster broth.
It’s actually a lovely smell, except when it’s in my yoga room and I know it came from the cat.
***
I put up a sign in my office today. It says, “One thing at a time.” My experiment for this week. I am SICK, SICK, SICK of the tyranny of multi-tasking. I am super good at it, but it is really starting to make me miserable.
Ayurvedic theorists ought to take a look at multi-tasking. I am convinced it causes a vata imbalance.
***
“I’m not getting any better at this,” said The Cop this morning, in reference to his jump throughs.
“You will,” I said. “You probably have to go through a despair stage.”
“How many times?”