 |
| I, CANDY. |
She’s swapping "The Manor," her 55,000-square-foot Holmby Hills manse (asking price: $150 million), for a modest $35-million, penthouse condo.
"I need something smaller – just for me," she tells People.com. Her new master bedroom will be 4000 square feet, or roughly the size of my elementary school. "I'm going to have to give up some things, but it's time for a change."
As someone who buys discount pasta, I'm driven to ask: Has reality ever set foot upon Planet Candy?
As someone who buys discount pasta, I'm driven to ask: Has reality ever set foot upon Planet Candy?
When confronted by people I consider, um...off-putting, it’s helpful to remember -- as my yoga mentor once said -- that everyone is simply trying to be happy. Establishing that most basic common ground is crucial to cultivating the opposite of negative or harmful attitudes, a practice ancient yogis called pratipaksha bhavanam. Not to be oversimplified as a karmic “turn that frown upside down,” pratipaksha bhavanam compels me to seek both the humanity and divinity in those whom I would typically shun.
In an online appeal to her oft-estranged daughter Tori, Candy wrote: "I'm a mother who, like every mother, wants communication and a great relationship with…my daughter, and [her] family. I'd love to work it out the way all families try to resolve issues. In private."
A heartbroken mom reaching out to her only daughter? Maybe there's some sugar in this Candy. I imagine a scene…
INT. “THE MANOR.” GIFT-WRAPPING ROOM. EARLY EVENING.
French doors fly open!
Enter CANDY, tear-stained eyes. She smashes an expensive and conspicuously UN-OPENED GIFT-BOX onto the floor.
CANDY
Ungrateful!
We see a postal notice stamped on the gift: “RETURN TO SENDER.”
Reveal MADISON, a knowing nod, though he can't read. He meets Candy’s beseeching gaze, more wariness than compassion in his moppy eyes.
Madison is Candy's PET TERRIER.
CANDY
(soft wail)
Oh, Tori...can't you see I'm TRYING?
Candy clunks her iced tea onto the wrapping table, anger subsiding to grief. She turns to Madison. Crouches low.
CANDY
Mama needs a kiss.
Madison FREEZES, then DARTS behind a spool of blue-grosgrain ribbon, nervously licking its frayed edge. Candy SIGHS heavily. Et tu, Madison?
A LONE ICE CUBE sinks slowly to the bottom of Candy's highball glass…
FADE TO BLACK.
We've all navigated dark corridors of the human condition -- feelings of abandonment, loneliness, depression -- seeking a glimmer of light and love at the end. Yet, it's all too easy to hoist ourselves onto pedestals, lambasting the weaknesses that we see in others but refuse to recognize in ourselves.
Pausing to observe what unites, rather than divides, us as flawed humans, takes our yoga practice far deeper than any asana ever could. If that insight can transform even the tiniest amount of animosity into its opposite -- genuine empathy, maybe even love -- a burden lifts, giving the spirit room to grow.
I may not live in "The Manor," but there's no reason why my heart shouldn't fill that space.
Pausing to observe what unites, rather than divides, us as flawed humans, takes our yoga practice far deeper than any asana ever could. If that insight can transform even the tiniest amount of animosity into its opposite -- genuine empathy, maybe even love -- a burden lifts, giving the spirit room to grow.
I may not live in "The Manor," but there's no reason why my heart shouldn't fill that space.
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here. You may also visit my website, davidkimyoga.com, for additional information and class schedule.