Welcome to the new digs!  Pretty great, huh?  We’re still all in progress with our chakras hanging open and little bits and bytes scattered here and there; if something doesn’t work let me know in comments and I’ll, uh, tell somebody who’s smart enough to fix it.

Yup, that's what it looks like all right

I got to reminiscing yesterday with a friend who is currently pursuing his post-secondary education, and of course his education is a technocratic junta full of Google Books and little remote-control PowerPoint presentations.  I realized that my career has nicely bracketed the digital and and the analog; when I went to school, [harrumph!] you had to actually show up for class in meatspace.  I don’t think I had a Hotmail address until I went to Banff in ‘99.  You kids get off my lawn!

In the meantime I’ve witnessed various sorts of resistance and recalcitrance to the digital juggernaut, some of which I’ve been a part of.  For example, I have always had a completely groundless aversion to MySpace.  No reason, can’t explain it, just don’t like it.  Some people had a hard time with the camera-phone thing.  Shoot, not that long ago it was considered kind of classless to talk on your cellphone in company.  Plus ça change; nobody would even HAVE company any more if it wasn’t for cellphones.  There are always these little pockets of humanity, particularly in the yoga world, who proudly claim to be the last stand against {choose your weapon}:  television, cellphones, digital wristwatches, the Internet, Twitter, those newfangled automobiles, audiobooks, microwave ovens, mp3 players, text messaging, indoor plumbing, DVDs, bittorrenting, automatic dishwashers, &c. &c.   To which I say:  Good luck with that, and let me know how it works out for you.

If there is a medium more suited to the yogic lifestyle than the Internet, I haven’t found it [at least until my prana is raised to such a level that I can communicate telepathically with my students and community].  Consider:  You can now begin a home practice instructed by the best and brightest via podcast.  As a teacher, you can travel all over and still remain available for your students’ questions.  The promotional aspect, while it can sometimes seem like the most tawdry face of the Tubes especially when you get pop-ups and similar nonsense, is a great boon.  It has, for better or worse, democratized [word?] the most esoteric teachings.

Apart from those specifics there is something inherently tantric about the Internet.  I mean, here we are weaving a community out of nothing but pure intention, made manifest through 1s and 0s.  Through the abstraction of words and pictures, concrete connections and friendships are formed and maintained.  I’m not suggesting it’s the only way to form these connections but, for me, I wouldn’t have the life that I do without the sloppy, nutty, bizarre bazaar of the Internet.

So that’ll be the kickoff thought for this new Great Orangeness.  Many thanks to Oliver for his help, vision and ability to find and destroy purple.

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