I always dreaded going to Bikram yoga, yet miss it so much. Probably five years previous i decided to restart my Bikram practice. It has been an off and on hot relationship for many years. I made the drive to class hoping to get stuck in traffic so I did not have to go to class. Still I made it to class like a flower petal blooming. Much to my surprise, the person on the mat next to me was somebody I knew. It was a friend who was a member of the same running-drinking club I also belonged. Bikram Yoga to me was a practice I never talked about much. I took me a while. in my own mind, to get comfortable with this out of character interaction. However, it ended up being being a rather special encounter. I got to know her in a different way. We sweated, strained, contorted in 106 degree heat for ninety minutes at a time. once or twice a week.
She is simply a cool person. We lost touch and I don’t remember why. I moved to another town and later I found out she moved to another state. I believe she moved to a state famous for tumbleweeds and the dust bowl.
To put it into context, we ran three to four miles as part of our running club. Years later, we endured Bikram yoga. By most standards here are two pretty healthy people.
She nearly died a few years back as she had a large cardiac arrest. I will get the terminology wrong, but it was serious. About the same time, I also had a heart attack. Mine was not as serious as hers. I dont think there is a thing known a a non serious heart attack. I take them all seriously.
Which brings me back to the state that is famous for tumbleweeds and dust bowls. On the morning of April 19, 1995, an ex-Army soldier and security guard named Timothy McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. He was about to commit mass murder.
We know the rest of the story, Like so many white nationalist crimes, people on right walk around squawking misused statistics. “It is about mental health”.
By the way, Bikram yoga probably helped us survive our heart attacks.
Can you imagine a white nationalist in a yoga class.
Your immediate response is probably ‘No’.
And I can hardly blame you.
The Side Effects of Endorphins 