Field Ledger Archive

13,343 entries across the years, 2003–2026.

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December 2019
November 2019
"The weather is getting colder, and people are pulling out their space heaters. We just wanted to remind you that you should NEVER plug a heater into a power strip," the fire department wrote on its Facebook page. "These units are not designed to handle the high current flow needed for a space heater and can overheat or even catch fire due to the added energy flow. Please share and stay safe this Winter season."

https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/heres-why-you-dont-plug-space-heaters-into-power-strips
Monday, November 18, 2019 · 8:47 am
My childhood obesity went hand in hand with my depressed mind state. Efforts at participating in youth sports were met with “weigh ins” for game day. I regularly wasn’t able to play, though I learned to love practice.

I also learned to be hyper critical of my size and to feel ashamed and to starve and binge and purge. When I finally got ahold of my mind state— coming out, changing schools, leaving school, nearly dying and learning to really want to live— the weight started coming off.. and staying off.

My blue print is not small. My healthy body and mind o— your healthy body and mind— are not numerical. I hope that this young lady’s testimony — our testimony— helps folks look again at the source and the solution of our own mutated self image and efforts at aesthetic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html
Friday, November 8, 2019 · 9:50 am
yogaashtangapracticereadingwriting
AshtangaPracticeReadingReflectionsWritingYoga
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
The District had its highest number of reported hate crimes last year: 204. That’s a year of gay men being beaten, black girls being threatened, transgender women being hurt, synagogues being harassed, Muslims being taunted and a Trump supporter smacked in a restaurant.

Liu, speaking at a forum at the Justice Department last month on combating anti-Semitism, said that sometimes, the odds of conviction are better when they don’t press a hate-crime charge.

But that ignores what hate crimes do to the people who experience them. And it doesn’t make vulnerable people feel like anyone’s got their backs.

Eleanor Holmes Norton: “As you may know, the number of reported hate crimes in the District of Columbia almost doubled between 2016 and 2018. Many of these crimes were targeted at the LGBTQ community, especially transgender individuals. At a recent well-attended community forum, I learned that this community feels it is under siege. I agree,” she wrote. “As you are well aware, it takes only a few prosecutions to create a deterrent effect.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-prosecutor-wont-do-her-job-so-bigots-are-getting-away-with-hate-crimes-in-dc/2019/08/22/9d6499c4-c508-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html
Saturday, August 24, 2019 · 5:03 pm
teachingyogacommunityactivismwriting
ActivismCommunityFoodReflectionsTeachingWritingYoga
July 2019
Working inside of different federal agencies, corporations, and NGOs for the last 10+ years as a yoga teacher has been illuminating in the ways mindfulness practice can be co-opted for both the forces of good and some far more nefarious.

As a young teacher, i felt as though i was sharing something very useful with people who could affect change on a much larger scale than I ever could— i felt subversive to be doing it right in the heart of the corporate/capitalistic machine.

Practice works— and it works across a broad spectrum of therapeutic modalities each with individual metrics. Spiritual health, physical well being, interpersonal relational skills, emotional balance— each can be touched on. When instructed well, each can be elevated. So too, I’m sad to say, can the shadow side: further anesthetization, good old spiritual bypassing, and duration of a culture that punches down and goes to sleep.

Having seen this in local yoga studios, international finance organizations, and local community sports non-profits, its very much on my radar. But, it doesn’t mean to stop. It means to care more and share better.

Teachers have a responsibility: pick your platform, and to pick it well. Keep your ethics high, and they will trickle down.

https://www.thenation.com/article/ron-parser-mcmindfulness-mindfulness-meditation-book-interview/
Friday, July 26, 2019 · 6:44 am
yogaashtangapracticemeditationteachingyoga industrywriting
AshtangaMeditationPracticeReflectionsTeachingWritingYogaYoga industry
One of my first Ashtanga Yoga teachers, Keith Moore was recently diagnosed with throat and neck cancer. Keith, and folks like him, support and sustain communities — let’s do the same for him. He’s a great guy with an independent studio and is a touchstone for a lot of folk.

https://www.gofundme.com/Keith-Moore-we-got-this?pc=fb_dn_cpgntopnavlarge_r&rcid=r01-156193452837-141790b3701e40f9&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fb_dn_cpgntopnavlarge_r
Monday, July 1, 2019 · 12:23 pm
keith mooreyogaashtangapracticeteachingwriting
AshtangaPracticeTeachingWritingYoga
June 2019
May 2019
Join me on Friday evening for a collection of practices for utilizing yoga to develop a clearer vision of who you are and where you are going. We'll vision board, meditate, talk philosophy-- and best of all, be in community.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yoga-for-self-inquiry-your-sacred-mission-and-vision-tickets-62048563925

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/yoga-for-self-inquiry-your-sacred-mission-and-vision-tickets-62048563925
Monday, May 20, 2019 · 12:20 pm
yogaashtangapracticemeditationphilosophywriting
AshtangaMeditationPhilosophyPracticeWritingYoga
April 2019
March 2019
One of the clearest signature highlights of the last few years is wrapped up in my friendship with Cory. I’ve learned so much from him.

He’s headed to TN to start Ashtanga Nashville this summer (June!). All a’ y’all are lucky to get one of the most authentic, knowledgeable, and clear embodiments of what yoga has to offer.

Go follow @ashtanganashville — go practice.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvem-rllYg9/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=cja01dfu2jon

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvem-rllYg9/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=cja01dfu2jon
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 · 4:10 pm
cory📍 Nashville📍 Tennesseeyogaashtangateachinggratitude
AshtangaFriendsNashvillePracticeTeachingTennesseeYoga
Has he been to Maggie's house? Her pantry is labeled. I recently found a shoe in my fridge. Tell me which is Order and which is Chaos.
...
For example, he sees the world as fundamentally divided between the forces of “chaos” and the forces of “order,” and explains the difference:

...
[Chaos is] what extends, eternally and without limit, beyond the boundaries of all states, all ideas, and all disciplines… It’s the foreigner, the stranger, the member of another gang, the rustle in the bushes… the hidden anger of your mother… Chaos is symbolically associated with the feminine… Order, by contrast, is explored territory. That’s the hundreds-of-millions-of-years-old hierarchy of place, position, and authority. That’s the structure of society. It’s the structure provided by biology, too…It’s the flag of the nation… It’s the greatness of tradition, the rows of desks in the school classroom, the trains that leave on time… In the domain of order, things behave as God intended.
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It’s very easy to hear the echoes of authoritarianism, even fascism, in this: strong men create order, which is what God intends, and the social structure is preserved by deference to authority, tradition, hierarchy, flags. (Heck, he even talks about the trains running on time!) But the moment one tries to critique this, to talk about the dangers of adhering to flags and traditions for their own sake, Peterson will angrily insist that you have misunderstood his theory: order is symbiotic with chaos, not superior to it! (“Order is not enough.”)
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What’s important about this kind of writing is that it can easily appear to contain useful insight, because it says many things that either are true or “feel kind of true,” and does so in a way that makes the reader feel stupid for not really understanding. (Many of the book’s reviews on Amazon contain sentiments like: I am not sure I understood it, but it’s absolutely brilliant.) It’s not that it’s empty of content; in fact, it’s precisely because some of it does ring true that it is able to convince readers of its importance. It’s certainly right that some procedures work in one situation but not another. It’s right that good moral systems have to be able to think about the future in figuring out what to do in the present. But much of the rest is language so abstract that it cannot be proved or disproved. (The old expression “what’s new in it isn’t true, and what’s true isn’t new” applies here.)

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve
Sunday, March 24, 2019 · 8:29 am
jordan petersonmaggiereadingreflectionphilosophy
PhilosophyReadingReflection
February 2019
January 2019
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