à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Sensitivity
Why We Need True Diplomacy, and Feldenkrais, More than Ever
When I learned that George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, would be testifying in front of Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry, I thought: Thank God. I met him during the 1991-1992 academic year when were both students at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in … Continue reading
Want to Go Far? Don’t Push. Play!
“How far did you get?” The young woman asking me this question worked at a pop-up boat rental operation in Western Massachusetts. I had just rented a kayak for an hour, my first time in such a watercraft. I had been wanting to try kayaking for a while, yet whenever the impulse arose, the long-ago … Continue reading
An Apology to Oatmeal
For much of my life I didn’t want to go near oatmeal, the Birkenstocks of food: good for you but an aesthetic disaster. Dull of hue and bland of taste, what was there to love? Oatmeal conjured thoughts of gruel, served to Oliver and his fellow orphans in Dickensian England, or porridge, something thick that … Continue reading
Reclaiming Dignity: Feldenkrais with Jorge Ferri
Sometimes changes of fortune deliver us into good hands. I didn’t expect to visit the Spanish city of Valencia, but my plans to spend a month in Barcelona collapsed when my housing reservation for the final week turned out to be a disaster. After spending one night in a hotel room barely bigger than a … Continue reading
When Even Good Habits Allow Us to Hide from Ourselves
“When you know what you are doing you can do what you want” – Moshe Feldenkrais Ideally, we form conscious habits and become aware of our behavior (“know what you are doing”) to help us thrive (“do what you want”). If our habits are no longer serving us, we can cultivate different ones. That is … Continue reading
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