One of my favorites is ship christening: an expensive bottle of champagne is broken (traditionally by a female) to bless a vessel's maiden voyage. Imagine for a second we christened our children in this method. It developed in the maritime glory days of the 1800s. If the bottle didn't break, it was a bad omen. The Camilla's bottle remained intact foreshadowing how later the intestines of its passengers did not; they all contracted a virus and blamed it on the bottle. The USS Maine had 16-year-old Alice Tracy Wilmerding, the granddaughter of the Naval Secretary successfully break the bottle over the hull in Brooklyn. That turned out awesome...the Maine is one of history's great naval blights.
One of the first films recorded by Thomas Edison, the burial of the Maine's victims:
Every 1st of the month, MJ wakes up to his vibrating phone alarm, holds it about 3cm from his de-spectacled eyes and says, "Oh! Rabbit, rabbit day." I thought this was one of those weird OCD things we held onto from childhood (I have one where I have to lift my hand over the trees while sitting in the passenger seat of the car). BUT, I Wikipediaed it and it is an old Anglo tradition that somehow snuck into various parts of our country, including Central Pennsylvania. It brings good luck apparently. I seriously don't understand why rabbits are lucky in this world. No matter what though, watching him say, "OH! rabbit rabbit" is a good way to start any month.
Some people start a journey with their right foot.
Some people tie dollar bills around their new car.
Hindus pray to Ganesha when starting something new. We did this in India the first day shooting the Masala Bhangra workout video. There was a statue of Ganesh placed on a plastic chair, surrounded by incense. A little ghetto, but no different than some of the makeshift altars in my childhood Catholic household that consisted of those 99 cent store glass candles with pictures of La Virgen. Som, our director, broke a coconut to symbolize how their are always arduous obstacles in our journeys. Also the importance of breaking our own inner hardness (represented in our ego), in order to let the nectar of fruition flow. Last weekend during my teacher training, we informally prayed to Ganesh and between him and Lakshmi who watches over me (I'm convinced), I'm set to go. The only minor setback is that I don't really have a great picture of myself dancing Masala Bhangra. I cropped a picture from the photo shoot for New Women Magazine (Indian publication), and by GOD is it cheesy. Don't laugh:
Bitch, you laughed.
In my oneiric fantasies, I WANT to appear straight out of a Bollywood film, yes it is true. But I think I dreamed too hard and ended up as a 1970s Indian heroine. I even have the hair bump. Compare to photographs taken by Jordan Matter, some of the coolest shots of dancers I've ever seen, and I grew up as an avid New York City Ballet playbill collector.
The rest are just as inspiring.
Dear Ganesh and Lakshmi,
I know I am supposed to eliminate inner-ego in order to have a more pure journey as a teacher, BUT can you please open the opportunity for me to have a promotional picture where I look KICK ASS and less like an 8-year-old girl playing dress up. Thank you. I will bring lotus and marigolds to your temples next time I'm in the motherland.
Namaste,
Lizzie
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