Yogi’s wisdom

I usually steer clear of the buildings with signs like sports or clubs on the outside but sometimes my resolve is weakened after one too many slices of pizza. Such establishments may be cleverly disguised under people's names like Lucille or Jack, so get acquainted with all former or current fatsoes who could potentially open a facility in the future. Yoga is great except when the instructor talks too much about unrelated material. One woman decided to link the benefits of yoga practice to giving cheaper gifts to people. How do they relate? Well her clever mind came up with the following: “Why do we always feel bad when we give a gift that doesn’t cost as much as we think the person deserves?” Stop right there. She is putting a price tag on her relatives. “My family likes to do a grab bag and we have a limit on how much we can spend. I always buy a little something extra because I’m never satisfied with my gift to the ones I love”. That's probably because your gift stinks and you are bad at finding bargains. Besides, the ones you love told you to buy them something that costs 10 bucks because they don’t want you to spend more and those same loved ones will be spending 10 bucks on you. Why be the cause of their discomfort when you give them a more expensive present? I'd love to hear that gift exchange conversation. "Hello cousin Steve, I thought you are entitled to a little something extra". "Hello cousin, I thought you were pretty much worth the 10 dollars I spent, but thanks for overestimating me".

 “We shouldn’t do this. It’s the thought that counts”, she said. Well thank you Dalai Lama. My second grade teacher used to give us the same speech. Now I’m a bit older and tend to dislike clichés. Is this the sort of thing I have to listen to while attempting to meditate in an uncomfortable position? If you, oh great one, still do this after so many years of practice (and so many disappointing gifts) how do you expect a newbie to be any different? Get over here and adjust my pose. All of a sudden everyone is a philosopher. Now put on some Yanni and show us how flexible you are.