Meaningful Mud's Monthly Mu - May 2024
“how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.”
Hey there,
And welcome to Meaningful Mud’s Monthly Mu May edition. Thank you for being here and for opening up this mail!
In the month gone by, Pavel (this is what I imagine his name to be) has become as consistent a feature of my yoga practices in the park as my sun salutations and virabhadrasanas. Wearing an eternally fading black beanie and armed with an old-school rusted TV aerial, each morning Pavel patiently approaches my mat and with the confidence of an experienced airplane steward politely instructs me to step aside.
With eyes closed shut and legs hip distance apart, Pavel proceeds to rhythmically bob his aerial wand whilst gradually turning clockwise and repeating. Between each rotation, he ever so slightly adjusts the angle of my mat on the park’s grassy floor.
Once emerging from his trance, Pavel commandingly directs me to which end of my mat I should stand and after dutifully obeying I offer him a Sanskrit Russian combination of namaste and spasibo, to which he responds with a cheery smile and an impassioned general’s salute as he continues on his merry way.
Whilst I only speak a rare Sanskrit Russian dialect (as showcased above), Pavel having no English or Hebrew, him being a busy man, and there being no open windows for frivolous chit-chat within his enigmatic ritual, I have a hunch that the aim of Pavel’s antics is to align my yoga mat, and by extension me, with the good energy frequencies and forces out there that he is determinedly seeking out, whilst helping me avoid the less benevolent kinds lurking around.
Although probably considered mad by all or most societal standards, each day I am gratefully touched anew by this encounter.
As we all race and rush in our hurried pursuits, it sometimes feels that an overwhelming amount of spaces in our lives and worlds cause our “tender membranes to calcify,” to paraphrase Tennesse Williams - either inadvertently or with determined intentionality.
Pavel’s wand waving is a poignant and refreshingly rare reminder (because we all need reminders) of the humanizing and heartening power of kindness, of acknowledging another and of a stranger just helping a stranger.
Entering this month of May, I wish us all wholesome energy, hopeful human encounters and buckets of kindness, both given and received.
I thank you again for your presences here and hope you enjoy this May edition.
And lastly, in this month of May, may we always be stuck in Meaningful Mud.
Take good care.
Tyler
“Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.” The Word Alive
(Shout out to my friend Claire for this one!)
Bus to Nowhere
By Z.A Fouché
go someplace a bar or a library or a bookshop or a gas station go someplace at night in the day or in the morning don't go alone but go by yourself and stand in the butchery and say hello to the butcher and stand in the gas station and say hello to gasman and stand in the bar and say hello the barkeep but don't tell him how you feel he knows it's not real listen first and then you can share and maybe he will tell you something interesting because he is more interesting than you and he listens to lots of stories the butcher talks to the barman about the dead cows and the barman talks to the butcher about the dead people and then they finish work at 3am and it just so happens I'm on their bus to home to nowhere they see me I see them but the bus just loads us up with all our problems and it doesn't even know we are on the ride
Thank you to Hell and Earth for this gem below:
"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said."
We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.
Sonic Suggestions
I most definitely spend far too much of my time watching The Voice auditions.
This one gets me every time, despite the countless watches.
I hope it gets you too.
AND ALSO
It seems only fitting that this addition include a musical number titled Comes in Kindness by my dear friend Gabby Mahboubi. Enjoy!
Thank you for your reading of this edition and for your being here. It is really not taken for granted!
Please also consider forwarding this little offering to a loved one, friend or stranger and feel free to reach out should you wish to share any comments, critiques or suggestions.
Wishing you all a magical May!