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Exercises in Patience

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Janet

Herräng has been practically a non-stop exercise in patience and acceptance for me. Sharing such a small space with so many other people when I’m so used to living alone has been a challenge. What do I mean by “small?” Well, I’ve been staying in a classroom (literally, it’s a classroom – they rent out the Herräng elementary school for the camp during summer holiday) with 28 other dancers. They’ve piled 14 temporary bunk beds into the classroom to house us all. There’s hardly room for all our stuff. There’s only one bathroom – a toilet and sink – in our school house. There are two other school houses with similar accommodations, and a larger gymnasium with even more people in it. The gym houses the men’s and women’s showers – bay showers with just 3 shower heads – and an additional men’s and women’s toilet. There is also the sauna, which has 2 showers and a toilet, and there are men’s and women’s hours, as well as unisex hours, for that. All in all, there are about 18 sinks, 13 toilets, and 8 shower heads for the ~250 or so people staying in the school area, not to mention all the campers – another couple hundred dancers or so. There’s almost always a line for bathroom and it’s rare to get a warm shower.

If you need to change clothes, you pretty much need to go the gym locker room or the sauna. There’s no such thing as privacy or “alone time” here – there are people around you always. You can pull up a piece of grass on the lawn if it’s warm enough (it’s mostly chilly and even rainy here), but even then you’re not really alone.

Then there’s the rigid rules. They don’t want anyone putting anything on the floor anywhere in the Folkets Hus, where the nightly social dancing goes on. I’m guessing this is a fire hazard issue and probably a legal requirement. They’ve set up a “luggage storage” area outside to put all your stuff – all of it – while you’re dancing. This means your purse, your jacket, your phone, your wallet, and your non-dance shoes. This means you have to walk back and forth between the luggage storage and the dance hall outside in your dance shoes. And, by outside, I don’t mean a nice clean sidewalk, I mean wooden pallets that have been set up over a dirty, muddy lawn area. For you non-dancers, nothing ruins a pair of dance shoes like walking around outside in them, especially if they have suede soles vs. hard leather. Add to that the fact that it’s been raining a lot, which means walking on wet ground and rugs, and your night of dancing is ruined – wet dance shoes don’t dance.

So many things have irked my ire around here… I despair of ever letting go of that judgment. Perhaps being sick and tired doesn’t help. With 2-4 dance classes every day, and social dancing until the wee hours of the morning every night, sleep-deprived is the status quo around here. On top of that, after touching 30-50 other people all day every day (who have touched at least as many other people themselves), I came down with “Herräng flu” on Thursday – sore throat, congestion, nausea, chills, body aches, and skin that’s sensitive to the touch. Sleep has been difficult the last couple nights, and social dancing wasn’t even an option. It’s probably for the best, since I was ready to rip the face off a “security” volunteer who I twice had run-ins with over leaving my belongings in the hallways…

Herräng has certainly been an experience. I met some lovely people and was challenged to step up my dance game. The accommodations were problematic and the dance conditions were less than ideal. Would I do it again? Maybe.

TL;DR: Herräng Dance Camp might actually be a long-running experiment to study the effects of overcrowding and over-exhaustion on the human mind and body.

Uncategorized

Dogging

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Janet

WARNING: This is a dirty post. If you don’t wish to have your mind corrupted, kindly navigate instead to this compilation of cute “if it fits, I sits” cat (mostly) pics.

I love international get togethers. You get to learn so much about other cultures you never knew and would never in a million years have dreamed up on your own.

For example, have you heard of dogging? This is a British thing, and it is not at all proper. “Dogging” refers to taking your dog for a walk as an excuse to watch other people have sex in their cars (and maybe other places, too?). This is a whole cultural phenomenon – if two people are getting it on in their car and they leave the dome light on, it’s an invitation for others to come watch them have sex. Whether you’re a dog-walker or a sex-maker, this whole thing is known as “dogging.”

A French guy I met here at Herrang, and who is living in London, told me about this. His reaction when he heard about it for the first time: “You have a word for this?!”

Classic.

Virtual Book Club

The Purpose Driven Life: Day 21

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Janet

Day 21 is about protecting the church. I already wrote yesterday that the “church” is not a physical place or group of people, but the entire world. So, to me, this chapter is really about protecting love and is very much an extension of the previous chapters.

What does it mean to protect love? At its core, protecting love is about living according to your deepest values and desires. This means being honest – with yourself and with others – about who you really are (and are not) and about what you really want (and do not want). So, protecting love means being honest. Protecting love also means allowing others to live according to their deepest values and desires – not trying to control or manipulate others to do our will, and not abusing others for pursuing their own will. It also means: acknowledging when we’ve failed to live according to our deepest values and desires, when we’ve failed to be honest with ourselves and others, when we’ve tried to manipulate and control others, and when we’ve abused others; confronting others who have not been honest with us, who have tried to manipulate or control us, and who have abused us; and forgiving ourselves and others for our transgressions.

Why is it important to protect love? Because we find happiness and joy in this world when we protect love. It’s not about being moral or doing right by somebody else or even sacrifice – it’s about creating our own happiness, peace, and joy. Protecting love is ultimately about healing our own internal divide – about letting go of the false self to become more our true Self. Protecting love is in our own best self interest because it is about about letting go of our own fear and suffering so that love and joy can reign in our lives.

I really struggle with protecting love when things don’t go according to my expectations. No, I don’t struggle with protecting love – protecting love goes right out the window. When things don’t go the way I expect, even small things, suddenly the world doesn’t make sense to me anymore, and I feel fear, but I express anger. Here’s a small example:

Every night at Herräng there’s a daily meeting. On Saturday night, I walked over with everyone else to go to the daily meeting. It was rainy and cold and we had to wait around a bit before they let us into the hall. The hall isn’t big enough for the entire camp to sit in, so if you don’t get a seat up there where the action is, you have to go to one of the overflow rooms where they have a live stream set up. I was waiting for about 20-25 minutes with friends to get into the main hall when they finally started letting us in. The crowd moved slowly up the stairs and at the top of the stairs I got stopped by a volunteer who told me I couldn’t go into the hall with my purse – all bags had to be stored outside in the luggage storage area. Now, a volunteer had come by and told someone nearby that she needed to put her backpack in the luggage storage area, but she said nothing about my purse (perhaps she didn’t see it) and, since I don’t consider a purse to be luggage, it didn’t occur to me that I would be turned away from the meeting for having my purse with me.

They wouldn’t let me in the hall. “But it’s a purse” I kept saying in disbelief and rising frustration. It didn’t matter – I had to go back downstairs and put my purse in the luggage storage area, and that meant I was not going to get a seat in the main hall and I was not going to get to sit with my friends. The situation was not going as I had expected, and I was mad. Fortunately, I’ve outgrown my old habit of dropping explosive rage on innocent strangers, but I still got rude, condescending and accusatory, as if he was out to get me, out to ruin to my evening, this volunteer who was just trying to do his job. Still, for all the grief I caused this poor volunteer, I caused myself even greater grief by being arrogant, superior and entitled – by failing to protect love and choosing to engage in “why me” self-pity instead of simply accepting the present moment as it was and looking for the opportunity inherent in the unexpected.

In yesterday’s post, I finished up by writing about how destructive self-pity is – how feeling sorry for ourselves prevents us from hearing and empathizing with others and destroys relationship. And all that is true, but it is also an incomplete picture. What I didn’t write, because I was too tired and couldn’t gather my thoughts, is the most important part and the part that’s easiest to lose sight of – that the worst damage done by self-pity is not to our relationships with others but to our selves. When we choose self-pity over love, we side with our false ego self and reinforce the internal divide rather than healing it. The damage to the relationship, while an unfortunate and painful byproduct of the choice we’ve made, is merely a reflection of the harm we’ve already done to our selves by choosing self-pity over love.

One of the quotes from this chapter that spoke most strongly to me was something like ‘A critical spirit is a costly vice.’ It’s both true and poetic, and goodness knows I love my poetic truths. But, “a critical spirit” could be replaced with any example of lack of love – truly, any lack of love is a costly vice. And, again, “costly” does not concern worldly things or other people, but refers to the pain we cause ourselves. A lack of love on our part is costly to our self because it causes us pain. It may also cause others pain, but that’s already beside the point.

TL;DR: No tl;dr for virtual book club posts.

Dance/Sweden/Travelogue

Herräng Dance Camp

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Janet

I arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday, and to the Herräng Dance Camp on Saturday. Herräng Dance Camp is the most famous and, I think, longest running dance camp in the world of Swing Dance. It’s been held every year in the tiny village of Herräng, Sweden, since 1982 – 33 years! It started off as a small one-week dance camp for Swedes looking to grow their Jitterbug skills, but became an international attraction in 1989 when they brought Frankie Manning over to teach. The camp is now 5 weeks long – 5 consecutive week-long camps, though many people come for multiple weeks to take different tracks of classes, volunteer, and just hang out. I’m guessing there are around 600 students, plus dozens of volunteers, teachers, DJs, and who knows who else.

Herräng only has fewer that 500 permanent inhabitants, so you can imagine the impact nearly 1000 additional people each week has on this little town! The camp takes place at a little school here and at what I imagine must be a local community center – it’s called the “Folkets Hus,” which literally means “people’s house,” so that’s a community center, right? They put temporary bunk beds in the schoolhouses and gymnasium, they have a few private accommodation areas, and everyone else either camps (in campers or tents) or rents a place somewhere nearby. I have to say I’m really impressed by the logistical organization of the entire thing. I guess they’ve had a few decades to get it right, but still – housing this many people, feeding this many people, keeping bathrooms properly stocked and the place clean is really quite a feat.

Services here are almost non-existent. There’s a little grocery and a few small eating establishments, and that’s about it. They don’t even have an ATM – if you need money (or just about anything, really), you have to take a bus to the nearest town of Hallstavik, about 15 minutes away. The camp does have it’s own eating establishments, which are incredibly efficient at feeding so many people. Fortunately, the camp also has a laundry on-site. I’m not sure whether they take credit cards though (I doubt it), so I’m going to need to get to Hallstavik quickly!

There are classes every day from 10am-7pm (not straight through – each track has 3-4 classes per day, but they can take place any time between 10-7) and social dancing every night. It’s hard to describe a “typical” day at Herräng since everyone here is doing their own thing, but for me a typical day means waking up whenever that happens (with jet lag, it might be 5am or 10am), getting breakfast before the dinning hall closes, taking classes and blogging during the breaks, a shower and sauna once classes are over for the day, and dinner at some point. Whether or not I go social dancing depends on how I’m feeling that night. The dance floors are really crowded and hot, and since they’re temporary, it’s not exactly like dancing at the Casino on Catalina Island.

Nightly social dances are held at the Folkets Hus, where they have an indoor dance floor with live music and a temporary outdoor dance floor with dj’ed music. Classes are held there and at at least 5 other temporary outdoor dance floors that have been set up just for the camp. This week, there are 13 different dance tracks – several different levels of Lindy Hop, as well as tap and solo jazz. Other weeks have included tracks in Balboa, “Slow Dance” (this is Blues, right?), Harlem Roots, and Boogie Woogie. I can see why people would choose to stay for several weeks – you can take different tracks as either a lead or follow and step up your dance so much.

It’s impossible to overstate how much Frankie Manning continues to be the heart and soul of this dance camp. That’s his face on the camp logo in the image above. They even have a street here called “Frankie Mannings Väg.” When counting in his students to begin a dance, Frankie would count “1, 2, you know what to do,” and you hear this all over the place whenever the instructors here count in their classes. The references to Frankie, and the reverence given him, are never ending. I see it more here than I saw in my classes in the States, even. It’s really something.

I can’t begin to explain what it’s like to be living here with only other dancers. Whether I’m eating, sleeping, showering, walking around, whatever, everyone around me is a dancer. Everyone. Swing music can be heard playing all day long in the camp because there are classes going on all day long. It’s a magical place. If you’ve never spent an extended period of time at a camp surrounded by people who share the same passion you do, who are there to work on and practice and enjoy the hobby that you love, I highly recommend it. There’s nothing like it. I suppose going to Brazil last year for the World Cup was a little bit like that, because everywhere you go you’re surrounded by people who are there for the same reason you are. But it’s different when you’re there to work on your skills together, not just be entertained by talented others.

P.S. Had my first unisex nude sauna experience… It was pleasantly unexciting 🙂

TL;DR: Living it up at Lindy Hop Mecca.

Virtual Book Club

The Purpose Driven Life: Days 18, 19, 20

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Janet

Days 18-20 are all about relationships, community, and conflict resolution. I find these chapters are largely specific elaborations on the notion of living a life of love – extending love to all your community members – and concern common topics around relationship-building and maintenance. What spoke to me the most in these chapters were the sections on authenticity, “realness” vs. superficiality, and effectively addressing conflict.

In chapter 18, Warren defines authenticity and its opposite:

Instead of an atmosphere of honesty and humility, there is pretending, role-playing, politicking, and superficial politeness but shallow conversation. People wear masks, keep their guard up, and act as if everything is rosy in their lives. These attitudes are the death of real fellowship.”

He was specifically referring to the inauthenticity found in some churches, but we can look everywhere in our lives and see the falsity he describes. In the last sentence, “fellowship” can be read as “relationship” – we all know that being fake, that failing to be real and honest, is the death knell of any relationship, whether romantic, friendship, or business partnership.

This is what drove me from the corporate world. Not only was falsity the modus operandi in the corporate environment, it was viewed as a strength: side-stepping conflict was called finesse; making false promises and lying by omission was called influence or taking calculated risks. That’s not to say everyone in corporate America is fake – I have many wonderful, brilliant, authentic friends who I met at work, and many other former colleagues for whom I have a great deal of respect. But, by and large, getting ahead at a large company seemed to require putting your authenticity on the shelf, talking in circles and generalities to avoid accountability, avoiding open conflict, and getting things done by building alliances (and thereby excluding out-group colleagues) behind closed doors instead of out in the open. There was very little direct talk, attempts at honest and open conversation were dismissed as naive, idealistic, and even destructive because they made people uncomfortable, and getting a straight answer on just about anything was next to impossible.

I have heard it said that we hate in others what we deny in ourselves. I have also heard it said that our emotions should be viewed as signposts pointing the direction to where our work within lies. I’m sure I’ve written about both of these ideas previously. If these statements are true – and I believe they are, from personal experience and reflection – then it was my own falsity projected onto the corporate world, and reflected back to me by it, that I denied and hated so. I know other areas in my life where I was afraid to be honest – with myself and with others – about who I really was, and because I was false, I saw the others as false, too. Why not at work as well?

I can tell I have a lot of work to do in this area, and that’s really disheartening to realize. I wrote here about Chopra’s teaching that in order to get more of anything you you want, you have to first give it away to others. The great irony for me here is that I thought I was being authentic at work. I thought I was being honest. Yet, all my efforts were in vain, which makes me think my efforts were never really about being authentic, but about controlling – I was using honesty as a control mechanism. Needless to say, it didn’t work very well. The only thing I got was more frustrated.

Warren further discusses authenticity in chapter 19:

Many…small groups remain superficial because they are afraid of conflict. Whenever an issue pops up that might cause tension or discomfort, it is immediately glossed over in order to preserve a false sense of peace. Mr. “Don’t Rock the Boat” jumps in and tries to smooth everyone’s ruffled feathers, the issue is never resolved, and everyone lives with an underlying frustration. Everyone knows about the problem, but no one talks about it openly. This creates a sick environment of secrets where gossip thrives.

Warren talks about churches and church groups here, but his words can apply to any relationship at all. His words struck in me in how closely they mirrored my work environments – how conflict avoidant many people were, how many topics were simply off limits to talk about, and how much toxic gossip circulated as a result.

Do you see this dynamic in your life? In your families? With your friends? At work? Are you the one who’s afraid of conflict? Do you feel safe in these relationships? Known? Accepted? Appreciated? Do you compensate for this lack of authenticity and connection in your life with alcohol? Drugs? Sex? Food? Compulsive behavior (such as shopping or gambling)? Getting your needs for authenticity and connection met outside the relationship? Or withdrawing altogether? Is the false peace really worth the tax on your soul?

Warren’s words on conflict avoidance in chapter 19 lead directly into chapter 20, which is essentially about conflict resolution. Warren advises that, in conflict, whether you’re the offender or the offended, you need to address the conflict immediately, not wait for the other person to do it: “In conflict, time heals nothing; it causes hurts to fester.”

Perhaps this statement spoke to me so strongly because I had experienced such a situation just before I read the chapter. Someone I had grown close to suddenly felt distant and was careless with my feelings. After inquiring whether I had done something to hurt them, they claimed to not know what I was talking about, but confessed they suspected I was upset about something and so waited for me to say something. Suffice it to say, the delay did cause more pain. Few things make you feel smaller or less valued by another person than having your hurt feelings deliberately ignored.

Warren also advises us to focus on the other person’s feelings first, then worry about the facts of the conflict, and makes the brilliant observation that this is often difficult because “we’re preoccupied with our own hurts. Self-pity dries up sympathy for others [emph. mine].”

Self-pity dries up sympathy for others (Warren uses the word “sympathy,” but with the meaning of empathy). What a perfect way to describe that far too common occurrence when someone says “you hurt my feelings,” and your feelings get hurt as a result and so you get mad at them for hurting your feelings without ever acknowledging that you hurt their feelings first. This is the self-pity Warren refers to, and it is wildly destructive.

What a fantastic demonstration of lack of love to respond to someone’s hurt feelings with anger, defensiveness, and dismissiveness. When Nina Simone said “You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served,” this is exactly the kind of the non-loving behavior she was talking about.

Why do we do this? Why do we respond to the hurt feelings of a loved one with destructive self-pity? This comes back, once again, to loving ourselves before we can love others. We experience self-pity in this situation because we feel a lack within ourselves – we lack love for ourselves. We feel fundamentally bad, unloveable, unworthy of love, so when someone says “hey, you hurt me” we hear “hey, you suck,” and we respond accordingly. How many relationships have perished because one or both parties couldn’t hear “you hurt me” without also hearing “you’re a no good, very bad, horrible person?”

TL;DR: No tl;dr for virtual book club posts.

Virtual Book Club

The Purpose Driven Life: Day 17

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Janet

In Day 17, Warren emphasizes the need to belong to a church for a number of reasons, including identifying yourself as a believer, developing spiritual maturity, and finding support to prevent backsliding.

I have mixed thoughts on this chapter. On the one hand, we all seek community with people who share our values, beliefs, world view, etc. Choosing to belong to a church is one example of that, and it makes sense that being surrounded by people who share your beliefs will help you better adhere to them yourself. I haven’t personally experienced these benefits in the “churches” I’ve belonged to, probably because I never really felt like I belonged and was never open to inviting these people so intimately into my life in the first place.

On the other hand, I think Warren’s definition of “church,” which is the standard definition, is narrow in relation to the purposes a “church” is meant to serve. For example, the verse “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” is used to justify the assertion that belonging to a physical church “identifies you as a genuine believer,” but Jesus called on us to love everyone, not a select group of people. Taking the Biblical perspective on God and spirituality, you build Jesus’ church by loving others – all others – not by creating in-groups and out-groups.

“If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor” is meant to support the idea that belonging to a physical church helps prevent self-centered isolation. But, if we’re all members of the body of Christ – which I described here as simply being members in the body of “Good” – then the whole world is our church, if we let it be. Yes, those who share our beliefs and values will help us adhere to them when the world seems cold and uncaring and the whole thing seems pointless – I’ve drawn so much strength from kindred souls I’ve connected with along my way. But, those who do not share our beliefs and values have much to teach us as well. There is a Buddhist concept that says we should treat all others as if they were Buddhas, teachers here to instruct us in perfect patience or perfect love. Even if you have a hard time seeing others as Buddhas or Christs in the flesh, believe that God (however you conceive of that concept) sent each and every person in your life to you to grow you up spiritually.

If we are all members of one body – which I believe we are, whether you call it the body of Christ or whatever – then we have much to learn from everyone we encounter about love and acceptance. A lung doesn’t tell a kidney to be more lung-like. It doesn’t get angry at or attack the kidney for being different, for having a different purpose, for doing different things – or doing things differently – from the lung. The body needs all its disparate parts to function as a whole. It’s a wonderful thing to draw strength and support from fellow spiritual seekers, but that needn’t happen within the narrow definition of a church. And we mustn’t discount what others – people we disagree with, dislike, don’t understand, etc. – have to teach us about what it really means to live a life of love.

Warren says “Only in regular contact with ordinary, imperfect believers can we learn real fellowship and experience the New Testament truth of being connected and dependent on each other.” You don’t need to go to a church to find ordinary, imperfect people to connect with and depend on. Warren said in Chapter 16 that life is all about love – for a Christian, showing love for any and every imperfect human being builds Christ’s church. It’s not necessary to define a physical space or group of people as your church. The world is our church, and we are all members.

TL;DR: No tl;dr for virtual book club posts.

Virtual Book Club

The Purpose Driven Life: Day 16

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Janet

Well, jet lag yesterday gave me a chance to catch up on all my Rio travelogue posts; jet lag today will be dedicated to The Purpose Driven Life.

Day 16: Life is all about love.

It really doesn’t matter which spiritual tradition you follow, love is the core tenant of all of them, and I’m glad to see Rick Warren reiterating this for the Christian faith. In my experience, Christianity is often characterized by guilt, shame, fear, and judgment. Obviously, this isn’t true for all Christians, or perhaps even for the majority of Christians. But, the heavy emphasis I’ve seen on the “grace of God” and the sinful and unworthy nature of humans tells me many Christians, whether they realize it or not, worship in fear and shame, trying to earn God’s approval, rather than in love, recognizing that acceptance and approval are their birthright.

Warren writes “Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life… Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love – God and people. Life minus love equals zero.”

My life and everything I’ve written about in this blog regarding my past perfectly reflect Warren’s words. I achieved and I acquired, and I grew more miserable with each new achievement and each new acquisition. I had a serious lack of love in my life.

Why is that? Why is it that some people’s cups overflow with love, while others experience a painful and paralyzing lack of love in their lives?

In her now famous talk on vulnerability, Brene Brown says that the difference between people who have a strong sense of love and belonging and people who do not is that those who do believe they are worthy of love and belonging, and that’s it – believing oneself worthy of love is the difference between having love in your life and not having love in your life.

That’s the one thing I would add to Warren’s chapter, the bit that seems to be missing – before you can love anyone else, and before you can feel loved by anyone else, you have to love yourself first.

Have you ever rejected a compliment? Has someone ever complimented you on something you feel insecure about – your looks, your talent, your intelligence? If you don’t believe yourself to be attractive/talented/intelligent, you’re not going to believe someone else when they tell you you are. In fact, you may think they’re trying to game you, to flatter you so that they can then take advantage of you. You may become suspicious and untrusting of them. It works the same with love – if someone shows you love, but you don’t believe you’re loveable, you’re not going to be able accept that love. In fact, you will become suspicious and untrusting of the person showing you love. You will reject that love, perhaps angrily and harshly and abusively, because you feel threatened by it.

Truthfully, I think loving oneself is what is really meant by the concept of loving God and why loving God comes before loving others in importance in the Christian faith. I wrote in Day 1 and Day 2 that human beings are not separate from God (again, however you conceive of that notion), that there is only Being (Truth, Light, Love, Awareness) in this world and we are all expressions of that Being. It’s when we deny that and imagine ourselves to be separate, when we adhere to the dictates of our ego or false self rather than the guidance of our True Self, that we experience pain and suffering. Loving God is really about knowing your True Self and living according to its deepest values and desires rather than the despotic and fickle demands of your ego. This is how we love ourselves first so that we may love, and be loved by, others.

Deepak Chopra says that in order to increase anything in your life, in order to get more of what you want, you have to give it away. If you want more acceptance, you have to be more accepting of others; if you want more compassion and empathy from others, you have to be more compassionate and empathetic toward others; even money – if you want more money, you have to give more money to others. The same goes with love – if you want more love, you have to give love to others. But, when you feel a lack of love in your life, you have no love to give others. You cannot give to others what you do not have yourself. Before you can love others, you must first love yourself.

I didn’t love myself, and I feel like I’ve written about this ad nauseum already, most specifically here. Because I didn’t love myself, I had no love to give others, nor could I accept the love of others. I grew more secluded as a result and continued on insanely living my life in the exact same way I had been and hoping for different a result.

…

I wasn’t expecting to say all that when I sat down to write about this chapter. I didn’t realize that was inside me. I really liked this chapter: what Warren had to say about the importance of love, about what love looks like, the bible verses he quoted… Sometimes writing does that – it brings things out of me I didn’t know I had inside me. That’s when writing is best, when it’s most meaningful and productive – when it reveals you to yourself, when it illuminates a previously unrecognized truth. It is emotionally draining, especially when shared with the world at large. But it is also catharsis – a most amazing sense of release and healing.

TL;DR: No tl;dr for virtual book club posts.

Brazil/Travelogue

As Seen in Rio

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Janet

I had grand ambitions for a series of “As Seen in Rio” posts – one for street art, one for sidewalks, one for architecture, and anything else that struck me as unique, noteworthy, or interesting. I was negligent in my photography, however, so what you’re getting instead is a pared down mish mash of the photos I did take of some of the things that captured my attention in Rio.

Street art in Lapa:

This painting is about 2.5 stories high and is easily the best and most magnificent street art I saw in all of Rio.

Street art in Ipanema:

Street art in Santa Theresa:

Street art in Vidigal:

This is actually a decorated favela - this is someone's home. — This is actually a decorated favela – this is someone’s home.

Random street art:

This was taken outside the Jardim Botanico.

I thought this was interesting because I snapped it near Jardim Botanico, but I also saw the same figure in Vidigal. I wonder if this is a form of evolved tagging?

These were actually snapped in the Cardeal Arcoverde metro station. Not exactly street art, but still neat.

Sidewalks:

Animals:

Plants:

IMG_2383 (2)

WWII Memorial:

Flamengo:

The panoramas don’t show just how visible Cristo Redentor is in the city, but he’s quite the visible figure.

And one last one – me ready to hit the pitch at Maracana 🙂

TL;DR: Random scenes of Rio.

Brazil/Travelogue

Santa Theresa

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Janet

Tuesday was my last full day in Rio, and I spent it walking around the Santa Theresa neighborhood. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this day. The weather was gorgeous, the people friendly as always, and the sights fascinating. I sort of wandered around soaking it all in with what I imagine was a look of dazed wonder on my face. It was really fantastic.

Santa Theresa is an old neighborhood in Rio. It sits on a high hill south of downtown with fantastic views of the city to the north and of the bay and Niteroi to the east. It is home to many old, stately mansions, some of which are quite run down. It is also home to more modern homes and to a favela.

Dilapidated old mansion in Santa Theresa.

Santa Theresa is an interesting mix of monied and poor Cariocas. It’s a bohemian neighborhood, like Lapa, historic and quaint, especially with all the winding, narrow roads that navigate the hill. I didn’t know what to expect going there, but I found it very charming. One of the main streets through the neighborhood is lined with cute, artsy shops and hip cafes with gorgeous views overlooking the city.

My tour actually started in the neighboring area of Gloria, at the Igreja Nossa Senhora da Glória do Outeiro.

It was impossible to get a pic of the entire church, but this gives you an idea of the architecture and construction.

The church dates back to 1739 and is considered a magnificent example of the colonial architecture of the time. I was impressed by the beautiful stone arches out front (back?) and by the simple beauty of the interior.

Inside the church. The blue and white tiles where characteristic of Brazilian churches of the time, a tradition brought over from Portugal. I saw similar church decoration in the churches I visited in Salvador last year. — Inside the church. The blue and white tiles were characteristic of Brazilian churches of the time, a tradition brought over from Portugal. I saw similar church decoration in the churches I visited in Salvador last year.

From the church, I walked over to neighboring Santa Theresa and began the steep climb into the neighborhood.

Where I came from... — Where I came from…

...and where I was going. — …and where I was going.

I walked up to Ruins Park, where the ruins of an old mansion are maintained and where there’s a terrace with 360-degree views of the surrounding area.

Inside the ruins:

And the view:

View of the bay with Niteroi on the other side and Sugarloaf Mountain to the right of center.

The view of downtown Rio. You can see the Catholic Cathedral and Lapa Arches in the middle, as well as the bridge to Niteroi on the upper right. To the right of the Cathedral is my favorite modern building in downtown with huge, symmetrical block cutouts that house patios for people to enjoy.

Close-up of the Cathedral and Lapa Arches.

Once I had taken in the view, I head back down the hill into Lapa to catch a few more sights.

One of the other students at my language school recommended going into the Catholic Cathedral, so I did. From the outside, it looks like a drab, brown beehive, and I didn’t see any reason to go inside. In fact, the building looks so intimidating, and they have huge security guards in suits at the gated entrances to the Cathedral, that I didn’t even think I could go inside – I figured it was prohibited. But, on the inside:

The Cathedral stands 246 feet inside with 4 stained glasses each standing 210 feet tall – about 21 stories! My pictures can’t begin to capture what it’s like to walk into that cavernous building with stained glass stretching so high your eyes can’t take in the whole thing at once. It really is magnificent.

Afterwards, I tried to visit the Biblioteca Real – Gabinete Portugues de Leitura, an historic library and reading room which is housed in a beautiful old building in downtown Rio. You can check out some amazing pictures here in Google images. Sadly, the Biblioteca was closed that day, so I missed out. I shall add it to my list of things to look forward to when I next visit Rio. Diana – we can explore it together!

TL;DR: Last full day in Rio spent soaking up the sun and sights in Santa Theresa, Lapa.

Brazil/Travelogue

Jardim Botanico

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Janet

I finally made it out to the Botanical Garden on Monday. The Jardim Botanico is a big, cultivated park with historic sites that are under renovation, museums, and greenhouses for various plant varieties. It’s got lots of wide boulevards that criss-cross the park, some fountains, and busts of various historic figures here and there – a reminder (to me) of Brazil’s European roots. It also has many smaller, winding paths you can follow, a small pond with massive fish and curious lily pads, man-made rivulets and waterfalls, and a cactus garden. Don’t ask me how they manage to keep a cactus garden alive in the middle of a tropical jungle.

Have you ever seen a tree with a root structure like this?! They looked like stalagmites, or little gnomes.

Curious lily pads in the pond. They looked like plates and were quite large – the one the bird is standing on was easily 18-inches across.

This plant had such beautiful, vibrant colors, and it looks designed to catch rain water.

My favorite part of the Garden was the orchid greenhouse. I love orchids, and they have an incredible collection of varieties – teeny tiny ones; big, fat, luxurious ones; ones with long, skinny petals that look like spiders; spotted ones; striped ones; bright ones; muted ones… Below are just a few of the orchids I snapped.