Why Yoga?

-From Ally's Mom- 

Many people start doing yoga because they want to get more flexible.  Yes, yoga is great for improving your flexibility but it is so much more.  I came into yoga when I started working part time at a yoga studio.  At the time I was a gym rat going to LifeTime Fitness 4-5 times a week.  I felt I was in pretty good shape and had never taken a yoga class.  My first beginner yoga class I was able to do most everything and it felt great.  But as I started taking more advanced

classes the poses became increasingly difficult.  I am Type A and wasn't satisfied that I couldn't do it all. I found myself just wanting to do yoga every day and eventually gave up my LifeTime membership.  It wasn't a hard decision - fight to find a parking spot, a locker in a crowded locker room and wait in line for showers or...park easily, walk into a calm studio and take classes with pleasant kind people.

The more classes I took, I came to the realization that the most important part of yoga is the breath.  Learning to link your inhales and exhales to the movements and poses is the hardest part.  If you can master the breath, the rest will come.    

I hope to be practicing yoga for the rest of my life and on that journey I will have days when it all feels great and days that I can barely fold over.  The yoga comes in realizing that every day is a gift.  Every moment is perfection to be embraced.  When life gets stressful or crazy I tap into my breath and see the yoga working.  When life is great I try to stop and savor the moment and again the yoga is working.

Dump Trump

Why do I feel as if Trump for president started out as a joke but has suddenly become all to real? It's almost as if the country didn't think twice about the rich, racist business man but as his popularity in poles rises the threat of having this irrational man for president is becoming to close for comfort.


Let's look at Trump's Campaign Website:

Donald trump, "Make America Great Again!" On his campaign website it says we should, "Consider our selves lucky to have him on our side." It claims that Trump is not reliant on investors and this shows that we are veering away from the pretense that money doesn't buy office. This argument is such bull considering that he has a net worth of 4 BILLION dollars so yes he does have money to run for office. And maybe be doesn't have investors because no one is stupid enough to support him.

He also argues that his loud mouth with no filter is a positive thing because, "Do we wish to be led by an individual who does not speak from the heart but rather prefers to be advised on what to say and when to say it?" Now at face value this seems legitimate. However, lets imagine Trump as the face of American speaking to another world leader. Would we prefer our president to be advised on the culture and hope to respectfully speak, or would we want him to just say whatever he feels and potentially screw up American world relations? Let's translate his aggressive, arrogant nature in his campaign to real politics. A self-entitled, power seeking bimbo in the oval office. Is this the kind of message we want to send to everyone else? 

His website also claims he will look out for us 'little people' and actually protect the interests of the middle class. The website says, "Because nearly all politics are crony-capitalists, tucked into the pockets of Big Business executives who want to outsource your job to China." Trump IS the big business executives. He is the billionaire with tons of capital so how will he be able to look out for the middle class? 

His website is actually promoting how everyone else hates him and trying to spin it into a good thing. In one of the twenty reasons why you should vote for trump, they say you should vote for him just because there aren't any other options. This is like comparing voting for president to what you're going to eat for dinner. Oh, well I guess just because my old options are dirt, dirt, and dirt with sprinkles, I'll go with dirt with sprinkles.

Everything about Trump makes you want to pull his thinning hair out. You really want that to be the new face of America? We need to figure out how to stop this madness. Opinions? 

Ronda Rowdy Rousey

"I swear to God If anyone calls me fat one more time in my life I'm going to kill them." Ronda Rousey told the New York Times. Rousey is filling a unique niche in Hollywood's industry: the intense need for female empowerment and fierceness while looking like your girl next door.

She was the first American Woman to win an Olympic medal in judo. But, she was disappointed coming home with bronze. After her shortcomings in Beijing, she turned to mixed-martial arts for a new challenge to push her and drive her to success. Currently, she is undefeated in mixed martial arts winning all twelve of her professional fights and is the first and current UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion.  

Outside of the ring, she's an actress. She played supporting actresses is movies and television such as Furious 7, The Expendable 3, and Entourage. She is staring in an upcoming movie "Mile 22" which she describes as mix between 8 Mile and Rocky. 

However, Rousey's current fight is against body image in Hollywood. She hopes to be a representative for body types often hidden in magazines and television. Once ashamed of her buff arms and ripped build, Rousey embraces her look and doesn't take rudeness from anybody. Rousey is an inspiration for all women and girls to embrace their inner fighters. She's a role model for people to look up to and know that you can be a women and kick ass in a normally male-dominated field. She motivats others to "contribute to the world, not consume from it." How do you feel about Rousey?

To read more about Rousey click here.

Why Do We Lie?

Lies, Lies, Lies,
Liars Surround Us
They are all around,
Quite commonly found in
History, Hollywood, Politics, and Religion,
Liars aren't very rare,

yet it is rather unusual
to uncover their affairs.

In Hillary and her email disgrace,
A leader of this nation who lost some face,
because she decided not to play by the rules,
and now most consider her a fool.

But do we really?
She's running for office,
even though she's surrounded by so much gossip.
Some feminists praise the woman's drive
but what does Hillary feel the need to hide?

Would inspecting the emails clear the air?
Or make the people more aware
Of the dirty secrets she covering.
That would be an riveting discovery.

How can we rely on others' words?
When the truth can become very blurred.

Why do we feel the need to assume a hero's role?
And make everyone else have villain's goals?
Sometime's we try to protect the one's we love,
so we shove our morals up above
onto a shelf where our secrets lie,
biding their time before coming alive.

When your secrets come alive,
they tend to drive
your life down into a ditch
where everyone labels you as a bitch.

When Religion and Politics Mix: Pope Francis

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Airis in 1936. He was ordained the 266th Pope on March, 13, 2013. While revolutionizing the image of the Pope, he is visiting the Unites States from September 22 to the 26th. He's stopping in Washington D.C, and New York, before arriving at the World Meeting of Families held in the Philadelphia this year. Thousands are flocking to see the symbol of hope and peace and he is certainly a man of the people. In D.C, he's speaking with the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the President on a variety of issues from global climate to immigration.

Nether labeled as a conservative or a liberal, Pope Francis has been a perfect politician when it comes to Christianities social issues. He is purposely vague on same-sex marriage, gender and marriage/divorce. His ambiguity on these subjects are enough to keep the conservatives around yet boost his popularity world wide. On an interview on a flight back from Brazil he stated:

"When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?... The tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem…they’re our brothers." The pope is implying that he does not have a problem with Homosexual tendencies as long as they accept the Lord. To accept the lord's teachings one must only have sex with the opposite gender therefore rejecting homosexual tendency. So he does not accept gay people; he accepts those who might have 'impure thoughts' but does not act upon them. 

However, we still have to realize he holds orthodox views and might not bring the social changes some are rallying for. Be realistic with your expectations; he is speaking with love and compassion but at the same time playing his cards right. He is an influential man in this world with enough power to institution change. However, don't assume radical changes for women, divorced couples, or homosexuals are coming to the Catholic church anytime soon. 

What Are We Fighting For?

As a junior at New Trier, the pressure to succeed engulfs students drowning them until they loose sight of the purpose of the fight. Overstretched and under-slept, the majority of New Trier students experience constant anxiety about their future. Am I involved enough? Is my GPA high enough? Should I take

classes or get a private tutor for the ACT? What's the end goal of everything? A lot of New Trier students picture an elite-flashy name dream school that will justify all the blood, sweat, and tears. But is that how you really want to define your success in life? On the college you spend only four years of your life at? Whether the pressure to attend top-tier colleges is internal, from society, or from parents, New Trier students need to remind themselves what they're really working towards. Because your life will not suddenly become whole if you are accepted into the elite-Ivies. On the other hand, your life won't break in two if you're rejected from your top three schools. Don't orient your life goals around a specific college because college is only the beginning of the adventure.

It is a privilege to receive the premium education that New Trier offers; we're being molded into the brightest minds in the nation. College is not the final destination; you have your entire lives ahead of you. However, right now, we are learning how to survive in a cut throat, competitive environment. By experiencing New Trier Education we already have a leg up on most of the nation. So stop stressing about getting into the flashy school because that is not the end goal of education. Set your sets higher. Work hard and become an intelligent human because you want to better yourself and society.

When Traditional Justice Fails

I have a firm belief in Karma- what goes around comes around. If you hold open the door for a sweet old lady, you might find twenty bucks on the ground. If you kill a bird with your car, the next day your favorite sweater will rip. The universe has a funny way of always balancing out good and evil. We see this circle of justice in Louise Erdrich's novel The Round House. In the coming of age novel about a young boy named Joe, we learn about the complicated lives of Native American's living on a reservation in 1988. In the book, Joe's mother is attacked, raped, and almost burned alive by a white racist man named Linden Lark. The laws, that are supposed to protect innocent civilians and uphold the common good, failed Geraldine (Joe's mom). Because the judicial system did not prosecute Linden, Joe took matters into his own hands and attempted to eliminate him. Unable to finish the job, his best friend Cappy had to send the fatal shot.

Linden Lark was the worst type of person: racist, rapist, murder. He kidnapped and killed a new mother, Mayla Wolfskin, because he claimed to love her and was raging that she had a baby with another man. He made no positive contributions to society and is a destructive sociopath. So does it make it just for Joe to kill Linden? A categorical thinker would argue that it was absolutely immoral and unjust for Linden to be murdered. They locate morality in the action itself: murder is wrong under all circumstances. Contrasting, a consequence thinker would argue Joe's actions brought justice because Linden's death produced peace for his family and the community.

A consequence theorist would insist one must be proactive and can defy one's morals to protect the one's we love. You could say that by avenging all the lives Linden destroyed, Joe brought back balance and order; that we should rejoice that Linden was eliminated form our gene pool. However, I associate myself as a categorical thinker: act upon your morally instincts no matter the circumstances.

After Lark's death, Joe learns he reacted to quickly too the situation, "(Bugger) had seen her dead body. If we hadn't killed Lark, he'd have gone to jail for life anyway" (310). Lark would not of been charged for rape of Gerdaline, however he would've been jailed for first degree murder of Mayla. Instead of patiently waiting for the inevitable outcome, Joe is haunted by his actions and the involvement of his deceased friend for the rest of his life. When the universe's judicial balance has been disturbed, it has an odd way of re-balancing balancing the scales. So make sure you always have Karma on your side.