You Learn Something New Everyday
I learned so much yesterday at massage school. It had nothing to do with massage.
Yesterday we had spa classes. That's were you learn to do things for people while they are lying on a table that they could do at home. You also learn that you can charge people 150$ to be exfoliated. (More than twice the cost of a massage for something that they could do for themselves.) I don't mean to harp on that. It's just not my cup of tea. But, being so aware that there are other people out there with other ideas actually put me in the right frame of mind to be taught some other lessons during the day.
Now our class has a real mix of people. There's the 19 year old mother, some older ex-corporate types, young, old, black, white, Korean American, male, female, gay, straight... (diverse but not evenly distributed mind you) So, yesterday during class we were observing a spa treatment on one of the teachers who was lying naked on a vichy shower table draped with towels. The class was lively and talkative and probably a bit louder than they should have been considering the clinic was open for business. That said, they weren't rowdy or at least that wasn't my perception.
One of my classmates didn't have the same perception. She's one of the ex-corporates. I'll call her M. M does energy work. She's my age (late 30's) and is going back to school to study massage after working for several years.
Well, M thought the class was being very disrespectful. She thought the other students really created a bad enviornment for the treatment and for the teacher on the table. (I don't discount what she felt, but I just want to say I didn't notice that at all.) At lunch she made a few comments about the morning to me and being really annoyed with the younger students in our class. The comment that really stood out was that it was that they just weren't mature. It occured to me then that she was angry with them for being what they are. Can 19 and 2o year olds to have the level of maturity of a 38 year old. Isn't it the same age old problem that people have always had? Wanting the world to be on the same wavelength that we are?
Anyway, what I learned from that is anger comes from within. I realized a need to love my classmates as they are. I realized a need to love M as she was at that moment.
That morning I had actually thought of trying to quite down the class a few times, but stopped myself. They weren't "out of control" and by shhing them I would have introduced conflict from my end. I let it go. I also let go when talking to M. She was valid in her feelings. I simply stated that I felt differently and then tried to understand her feelings. It was a very nice lesson and one that I almost didn't get. (It would have been easy to look at her with contempt for being uptight--but that wasn't what was going on. To say she was being uptight would have been a value judgement that had no meaning or use in the situation. It was just that there where these different thinkers at that time.)
The other lesson I learned is going to take more time to write about than I have this morning. But it was a really good one too. It involves all the old standards: God, evolution, monkeys, Adam and Eve, and people talking about these things. It was great. I'll tell it later.
Yesterday we had spa classes. That's were you learn to do things for people while they are lying on a table that they could do at home. You also learn that you can charge people 150$ to be exfoliated. (More than twice the cost of a massage for something that they could do for themselves.) I don't mean to harp on that. It's just not my cup of tea. But, being so aware that there are other people out there with other ideas actually put me in the right frame of mind to be taught some other lessons during the day.
Now our class has a real mix of people. There's the 19 year old mother, some older ex-corporate types, young, old, black, white, Korean American, male, female, gay, straight... (diverse but not evenly distributed mind you) So, yesterday during class we were observing a spa treatment on one of the teachers who was lying naked on a vichy shower table draped with towels. The class was lively and talkative and probably a bit louder than they should have been considering the clinic was open for business. That said, they weren't rowdy or at least that wasn't my perception.
One of my classmates didn't have the same perception. She's one of the ex-corporates. I'll call her M. M does energy work. She's my age (late 30's) and is going back to school to study massage after working for several years.
Well, M thought the class was being very disrespectful. She thought the other students really created a bad enviornment for the treatment and for the teacher on the table. (I don't discount what she felt, but I just want to say I didn't notice that at all.) At lunch she made a few comments about the morning to me and being really annoyed with the younger students in our class. The comment that really stood out was that it was that they just weren't mature. It occured to me then that she was angry with them for being what they are. Can 19 and 2o year olds to have the level of maturity of a 38 year old. Isn't it the same age old problem that people have always had? Wanting the world to be on the same wavelength that we are?
Anyway, what I learned from that is anger comes from within. I realized a need to love my classmates as they are. I realized a need to love M as she was at that moment.
That morning I had actually thought of trying to quite down the class a few times, but stopped myself. They weren't "out of control" and by shhing them I would have introduced conflict from my end. I let it go. I also let go when talking to M. She was valid in her feelings. I simply stated that I felt differently and then tried to understand her feelings. It was a very nice lesson and one that I almost didn't get. (It would have been easy to look at her with contempt for being uptight--but that wasn't what was going on. To say she was being uptight would have been a value judgement that had no meaning or use in the situation. It was just that there where these different thinkers at that time.)
The other lesson I learned is going to take more time to write about than I have this morning. But it was a really good one too. It involves all the old standards: God, evolution, monkeys, Adam and Eve, and people talking about these things. It was great. I'll tell it later.
posted by Brantley | 5:37 AM
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2 comments
