(np) Can’t be depressed when doing Kegels

[Michael Bailey]

Back in the 70s I had occasion to get a book published by the Iskcon
(Krishnas) entitled _Easy Travel to Other Planets_

Basically the thesis here was you could do all that and more by chanting
Hare Krishna. The book had nice, full-color plates depicting artists’
conceptions of the blue deity (a proto-Smurf?) and the planets one could
travel to - not limited to those in the Solar System, either.

Anyway, on the cover, underneath the title, was the slogan “God is light;
Nescience is darkness - where there is God there can be no nescience”

I never encountered the word “nescience” anywhere else, presumably it’s
something bad

(I used to never look words up, but just derive meaning from context - I no
longer practice that as rigidly, so tonight I learned that “nescience”
means “lack of knowledge; ignorance” which is what one might surmise from
the Latin/Greek roots, but those aren’t always reliable: what has ‘ovation’
to do with eggs, for instance? - or how about ‘hypocrite’ which isn’t
exactly from ‘hypo’ meaning ‘lower’ and ‘crit’ from ‘criterion’ which would
make it ‘oneself being lower than the criteria one sets for others’ but is
actually from Greek ‘hypokrites’ meaning ‘actor’? Although the meaning
turns out pretty close anyway)

All of which is to add depth to the notion: it’s the same way with Kegels
and depression!

I’ve been experimenting & they can’t coexist.

Did you ever read the underground comic called “Dr Atomic?” Doc and his
sidekick Billy Kropotkin were always having these adventures centered
around marijuana - I remember one called “The Giant Pot of Bangagong Valley”

The author/artist of Dr Atomic (Ted Richards) drew another, more obscure
comic called “The Forty-Year-Old Hippie” - which was also pretty darn
amusing.

I used to in 1980 buy a comic on the way to work, from a store called
“Seeds & Stems,” and amassed a nice little collection until the Reagan
Administration promulgated an edict against “paraphernalia” which put her
out of business long enough for me to get out of the habit.

The specific recollection I want to share was the slogan on one of the
“Forty-Year-Old Hippie” covers:

“200 trips and they’ve all been bummers. But I ain’t giving’ up!”

(Another cover had “I ain’t been high since the Pot o’ ‘69” which is also a
good slogan.)

(But my experience is a lot more like the former)

I get a more satisfying feeling from exercising mind and/or body.

I used to hate people that said that.
We live and we learn, eh?


Why torture your mind
With Heidegger or Hegel?
Depression, I find,
Can better be banished with Kegel!

Happy trails,


Michael