Life Is Not An Adhesion Contract

Life is not an adhesion contract.

I screwed this one up, but it still works!

I used a fancy legal word but you know adhesion contracts because you’ve signed them: think of your Facebook terms of service, and how about that liability waiver at your local yoga studio? Yeah, I just took it all the way back to Contracts II, my 2L days in law school. Stay with me, yogis. Those adhesion contracts are ones where you have little to no opportunity to negotiate the terms–you just sign it or leave it.

The thing is, life is not an adhesion contract. Life is not take it or leave it. I’m thinking about this as I sift through the Kino-Cody-Dana-David-Alo-Goliath stuff going on, and no, this is not a comment not the legal paper chase over there, but a totally separate train of though (though I might, just might, turn to Alo-gate for fun with my legal brain in another post).

If yoga is about changing your perspective, about burning the stale world we know to the ground, then let’s stop taking what’s shoved in our faces as take it or leave it.

I know the world I thought was it: it was a world of getting good grades, starving my recalcitrant ass into balletic nonexistence, getting the right job as a lawyer, working 24/7 not sleeping, celebrity mag binging, anxiety-wave riding, eating take-out at my desk-ing and doing everything right in the state of New York which, according to the family I grew up in, is where the world begins and ends (ok, the tri-state area would suffice, too). An eminently “reasonable” life of jamming my albeit flexible body into the Keebler Elves’ factory to cookie-cutter mass produce it into the shape of some Girl Scout thin minty artificial, highly processed and ubiquitously reproduced confection.

Turns out I am no fig newton.

I personally don’t want the middle ground. I don’t want reason or reasonable. Reasonable arrives and eventually looks and feels like Walmart, Captain Crunch, continuous streams of ads for things that don’t offer us an honest place of really looking at ourselves. I say bring on the fire, let’s burn this stale, safe, known, fearful place to the ground.

~David Garrigues “Should Fiery, Pittas Practice Ashtanga Yoga?”

Hmm, How about we cut it?

I wanted a yoga shirt that didn’t stink to high heaven because of some expensive techie fabric that morphs into a bacteria stink geyser if you happen to wash or dry it incorrectly. I wanted a yoga shirt that didn’t constrict me like a Victorian corset or cost more than a freakin five class pass at a yoga studio. So–

I took a scissor and negotiated my own terms.

I cut myself the shirts of my dreams– v-neck, deep arm holed, jagged, rough, tie-able, soft. Cheap. Functional. And, day after day of sweaty practice– stink free.

To assume that the world is quilted in fancy techie-fabric $70 yoga shirts from brands is, to be blunt, bunk. To assume that when you can’t find the shirt you want the game is over is, frankly, bunked-up. Guess what else is not take it or nothing –$120 yoga pants and apps with yoga class videos. Really.

I’m so fired up I might be ready to make my own damn yoga pants.

Let me return to the point. The notion of “Yoga essentials” is an oxymoron. Burn this stale, safe, reasonable $120-pants clad world to the ground. Look at the fabric of the world around you, dye it, tie it and please, pick up your scissors and

I miss this cut t-shirt (cut into a halter). I don’t know where I might have lost it!

Cut it.

 

###############

Since I don’t have time or skill to cut everything I want into reality, here are a few things I do like:

I buy my favorite (and I mean favorite) capris from Outdoor Voices, a women-led company to boot. They aren’t the most inexpensive ($65) but man they feel great, look great, work and wash well. Also, the brand’s customer service is top notch– they rushed me a pair in time for a trip after my original order got bungled.

As for fancy yoga class video apps, how about you learn yoga that doesn’t make you so dependent on others? Ashtanga teaches you how to practice on your own, with a little help. Ok, even if you don’t want ashtanga, you can find videos made by people just putting them out there on their own terms. I just purchased “Pilates for Arm Balances” from Jen Rene’s website.

My friend and girl crush Ashley Battersby handcrafts yoga pants and lots of cool stuff over at A-bomb Apparel— a one-woman operation (she’s also a professional skier and X-games medalist so….kind of like me in my dreams). My Mysore roommates Dustin and Ale also make lots of cool stuff over at Ananda 108.

 

This entry was posted in Blog.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *