My sympathies. The only problem we ever had was when dd was smaller and didn't like going through the metal detector alone. Thank goodness it only happened here in Canada where the TSA are more friendly. The ones in the US look like they live for the opportunity to humiliate people.

Ashtanga is perfectly fine for anyone as long as the teacher understands how to modify and stresses that students listen to their bodies. I've taught the standing and seated series to kids as young as 9 and women as old as 75. We modified and they were fine.

The real issue is the whole "purity" thing. If something has to be modified people are horrified. But is it yoga to force the body or to listen and work with it?

I prefer Ashtanga and variations on it to anything hot. I get warm enough on my own. But if you prefer hot, so what. You are listening to what your body needs. This territorial sniping is not necessary, imo. As a teacher, you should guide ppl to where they need to be.

The whole goddess thing is offensive but not that much different from the way our culture sets up young girls as beauty icons for grown women to aspire to. It seems the patriarchy is cool with female as long as it's not doing anything female - like maturing any way.

I wish I could be surprised, but I was a public school teacher for 20 years. If I learned anything, it was that not everyone was meant to be a parent. In fact, a lot of people would be doing the world a favor by never having kids. Unfortunately, most people don't stop and really consider their fitness and personal affinity for the job - because it is a job.

It's funny but I wonder if a woman could have written it and garnered the same reaction?

Listen. Just listen. Most grieving people just want to be heard and their loss acknowledged, and realize that often they will recount the same event with the same details over and over. It's called "processing" and it makes everything real because loss sometimes feels like a really bad dream.

Most crucial thing in listening is to not give the impression that you would run off if you had the chance and don't turn the conversation back to you - even if you had a miscarriage yourself. The moment is about her (or him - fathers grieve too).

Another interesting example of how women are excluded from their own beliefs based on traditions that grew out of male dominance as opposed to any real "scripture".

That's one of the many reasons we dumped our tv. Three years and it's bliss not hearing "I saw that on tv".

I think also that men, though not to the extent of women, do this as well.

Wonderfully said.

Be aware if you go down that road. My yoginess has rubbed off on my husband and things I never thought we'd discuss in terms of bodily function have become standard fare. You can't unsee or unknow, just saying.