Even though I have a tremendous amount of work to do for various projects and my time is more precious than ever, I spent 14 hours learning Sanskrit this weekend over the objections of my friend.
My friend, code-named Beardy, came to visit from DC 2 weeks ago. I was delighted to see him 2 weekends in a row as he toured both Northern and Southern Cali. I spent some energy preparing for his visit to my home including
a) finally organizing/unpacking/decorating my little townhouse overlooking Richardson Bay and
b)dress-shopping with a fashionable friend/woman of the world. A red wrap dress was her recommendation for dinner in the city. And she was right.
We had a lovely time on his visit and he enjoyed climbing the hills with me overlooking the beach. We also explored 2 art museums on his visit at his request. I've never seen anyone so ravenously, passionately and intelligently devour art. As a person who can be a bit sensitive, I have a low tolerance for art. Usually after 90 min of exposure, I'm overwhelmed. In the Picasso Museum in Paris as a 19 year old, I was determined to finish seeing everything despite my weakening frame. In the very last room, I finally succumbed, swooning onto a bench in the center of the room. Luckily this was Paris so the locals understood exactly what was happening. A young man sat beside me and took my hand feeling my forehead. A motherly woman ran to fetch a cup of water. "C'est trop pour moi," I whispered up into his sympathetic eyes. "Je sais," said he. "Je sais..." Looking back, that probably happens at least once a week at the Picasso Museum in that very spot and enterprising young Frenchmen or women lurk there, waiting.
Anyway, I highly recommend the DeYoung Museum. I've been to the SFMOMA too several times and had a great time at the Olafur Eliasson exhibit. The best way to experience the interactive exhibit is to do exactly what the small children are doing. Although this caused my companion to look down at me shaking his head: "You are such a child!" I took it as a compliment.
I had described to Beardy over dinner at Absinthe the night before all of the projects I had going on, all of the things I wanted and was doing. I am challenged to balance it all, given my incredibly demanding work schedule. I arrive at work at 8am on the first sunrise ferry after often doing an hour or two's work at home and try hard to leave on the 6:30pm ferry if only so I don't have to take the last ferry home. Jovan, one of the giant cuddly ferrymen had a serious ferryman-to-commuter talk with me about my working hours and what's important in life. And he was right.
Though sometimes I end up doing a bit more work at home.
Plus many other activities. Pouring more spectral green absinthe over the sugar cubes, Beardy said, well surely it's obvious which one you should drop? No I said, which one? I was geniunely eager for answers.
Sanskrit?! Whyever would you do something like that, he said. What use could it be?
Perhaps so. Yet, I had never dreamed I've even had the opportunity, especially not 5 minutes from my home. How often would this be the case? How often does one have the chance to learn one of the world's most ancient languages -- a language like Hebrew and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics was actually created in order to depict that which is most holy. The purpose of Sanskrit was to create a language subtle and sophisticated enough to describe the universe and the highest realities humanity can grasp.
So I took it. There were 15 people in class. Our teacher Josh Michaell is truly an amazing teacher and I learned a lot just from observing his pedagogical method from which I hope to borrow.
About a fourth of the class were yoga teachers from the studio so it was nice to be able to get to know them personally. I made a few local friends along the way, which was nice. Sanskrit is not easy. There are 5 mouth positions and we all learned to make quite a number of sounds that Americans don't normally make.
It makes sense that English has become the language of business as it is a relatively simple language compared to languages like Sanskrit or Chinese. One can express oneself clearly and simply yet it lacks certain subtleties -- someone one does not miss perhaps until you study other languages in which for example there might be many ways to describe love.
Sanskrit is an abundantly, decadently sensual language. I loved tasting it for the first time and credit it to one of the most amazing experiences of my life -- definitely top ten or 20.
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