Jun

Months after this should’ve happened, Hilary has finally conceded and withdrawn her bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination. FINALLY!!! Now Obama (who had to waste precious millions continuing the campaign against her long after it was, in effect, over) can get to work beating McCain. I’m worried about that – a year ago I would’ve never believed a Republican had a chance, but McCain billing himself as a moderate will likely sway some people. I still don’t know how, after the fiasco that has been the W administration, people could vote for 8 more years of this crap, but … stranger things have happened (like W ever becoming president to start with).

i have to say, I DO think Hilary was subjected to a lot of sexism in her campaign. However, I maintain, as I have from the beginning, that being a woman doesn’t mean she gets my vote. We’ve been telling men for 50 years that they can’t make choices based solely on whether someone is male or female – it’s very hypocritical now to say we have to support her because she’s female, as a lot of prominent feminists have done. I saw several news reports – and actually talked to some colleagues on Thursday night who are studying this experimentally – that people instinctively don’t like Hilary, they can’t articulate why they don’t like her, and that that indicates unconscious sexism. Hogwash, at least for me!!! I can articulate very well why I don’t like Hilary:
1. She is too much of an insider. As she says, she’s been “politicking” for over 30 years. She not only knows the system, she’s a part of it. She owes too many people favors, she’s fully and totally a part of the horrible partisanism and gridlock that has been plaguing our country. She is not capable of making true change to the system. And, call me naive, I really believe Obama *will* be able to do that. And we, quite clearly, need some real change from the status quo.
2. She ran a truly scuzzy campaign. It reminded me of the Republicans and how they usually operate. Totally bottom-feeding and without class. Enough said.

Alas, it is finally over and now the real work begins. Onward, to “Change We Can Believe In“. Just don’t get me started on whether or not she should be VP – ha!

  

Jun

Mercifully, my roommate is very nice and friendly. And also, skeptical of all of this like I am! We are getting along well, sitting together at talks and meals, etc. She is from UNC-Charlotte, and knows some of the people in my department.

First thing on the agenda last night … dinner. This consisted of potato/carrot curry that had some bits of tofu in it, rice noodles, zucchini, salad, rolls, and watermelon. Tasted good, but … I like protein. Also, dessert??? There was no mention of no sugar on the list of prohibitions!!!

After dinner, we went to the meditation hall for our opening sessions. The meditation hall is beautiful:
We had a brief overview on Buddhism in general – interestingly, like Judaism, there are a lot of different perspectives and competing ideologies under the overall rubric “Buddhism”, I never really knew that before. We also had our first meditation session. I have done some meditation sessions before – not a lot, but some. Usually they have been mantra-type meditations, where you repeat a word or phrase over and over again. This session focused on breathing, which it sounds like most mindfulness meditation is centered on. That was weird – being aware of our breathing, concentrating on it going in and out, etc. For the first 5 or 10 minutes, it was very relaxing, but then my mind started wandering. During this kind of meditation, when your mind wanders you’re just supposed to notice that it’s wandering and, non-judgmentally bring it back onto the breath. Yeah … that really didn’t work for me. Hopefully I will get better at this!

This morning I (remarkably, I think) made it to morning meditation at 7am. I did not make it to 6am yoga – there are limits! Morning meditation centered on breathing again, but was largely silent, not as much vocal guidance from the teacher as last night. Also this morning, I discovered I like oats – when drenched in brown sugar and maple syrup! %-) I was so desperate for sugar, any vehicle for it would suffice! I also scarfed down a hard-boiled egg and some peanut butter on a croissant, so I would have some protein.

That’s it so far – now off to a day of talks. Stay tuned for more adventures from the monastery!

  

Jun

Arrived in NYC yesterday afternoon, and headed straight up to Poughkeepsie to visit with a couple of our friends/colleagues at Vassar who we’re working on a grant proposal with. Had a really great time, AND got lots of work done on the grant.

Left Poughkeepsie at 3:30 this afternoon, arrived here a little after for. Garrison is teeny-tiny – not even a train station here, just a platform with two tracks. The shuttle from the Garrison Institute came right away to pick me up. The building and grounds here are gorgeous. The rooms, however, are not. Here is mine:

I think there are prison cells bigger than this. Truly.

My roommate is already here, but haven’t met her yet. One good thing – there is an awesome jacuzzi in the bathroom on my floor. Also, I can access the internet from my room – in the materials they sent, it said we would only be able to get online in the lounges. So, worse comes to worse, maybe I can hide in here and get some work done. Unless of course I hate my roommate…

Send positive vibes my way, I will need them!!!

  

Jun

Really, it’s not a joke. It is the Mind-Life Summer Research Institute, held at the Garrison Institute in New York, about an hour north of NYC. The Garrison Institute is a former monastery.

WHY am I going to this … well, it’s a long story. But it is for my work. I have become very interested in looking at how/why things like positive thinking, gratitude, meditation, etc. improve people’s physical and mental health. They all claim to, almost like little magic pills you can take, but no one seems to know (and a lot of people don’t even care) what the mechanism is, how these things relate to each other, whether there is some other factor underlying all of them, etc. Have looked at religion/spirituality in a couple of recent studies, but in the fall will be looking much more explicitly at these types of things. The other reason I was going is that Tony (Craig’s best friend from grad school who was in our wedding and has become “Uncle Tony” to our kids, braving traveling with us to the beach, Disney World, etc.) persuaded me we should both go, then he backed out at the last minute.

So here is the deal, and why it’s so funny to think of me at this thing:
1. There is no meat. Meaning, all the meals are vegetarian. Not vegan, but vegetarian. In case someone is reading this who doesn’t know me very well, I am SO ***NOT*** a vegetarian. I eat red meat at least 3-5 times a week, and on the days I don’t eat red meat, I eat chicken or fish.
2. There is no alcohol. This pretty much speaks for itself.
3. Silence - we have to be silent every between 10pm and 8am every day, PLUS one one of the days we will be silent the whole day. So, from 10pm Sunday night all the way through 8am Tuesday morning. No talking. At all.
4. No scented products – lotion, deoderant, shampoo, etc., all have to be fragrance-free. Do you know how hard it is to find stuff that is truly fragrance-free?!! Four drugstores and a Target later, I am coming up nada. Of course, they conveniently sell these at the Institute…
5. No sex – we’re supposed to be “chaste” in both thought and deed. I mean, Craig isn’t going to be there anyway, but still…

Other fun tidbits – there are no TVs, and also no elevators. The place has 4 stories – don’t you just know my room will probably be up in the attic!!! %-) Plus, we have roommates!!! I can’t remember the last time I had a roommate, other than family of course. I am wondering if they will, like colleges do, try to broaden our horizons by pairing us up with opposites – in that case I will likely end up with someone who has been meditating for 30 years, goes to bed at 8pm and gets up at 4am, and … I shudder to think what else! Also, supposedly our cell phones are not likely to work, and there are no phones in our rooms, so communication with the outside word will be limited (probably to keep us from calling a taxi and fleeing in the night! %-).

The grounds are supposedly beautiful – though crawling with ticks that have been shown to carry Lyme disease.

So, to summarize, I will be spending 6 days with no meat, no alcohol, no sex, no food that I like, no TV, and likely no phone calls to my family, sharing a tiny room with a roommate, and getting deathly ill if I walk outside.

Why did I say I was doing this again?!!

  

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