Maddeningly relaxed

"We are all born mad. Some... remain so."
-Samuel Beckett

Well, true believers, today proved to be one hell of a day! I was privileged enough to be taken by my Mom to see not one, but TWO productions at Stratford festival: Tommy and Waiting for Godot (my first time seeing Godot, though I've meant to for ages, and it's definitely semi-consciously influenced a lot of my own playwriting style). Both were utterly fantastic, and indicative of the standard sterling quality associated with the festival.

At the time, too, I would have considered the two to be a rather comically non-sequitur double-bill, but, in a very Hatch fashion, I couldn't help but draw links between both shows. Both address issues of the inevitable striving to assert identity in purpose in a world seemingly designed to unravel such pretenses, and the importance of, in the face of seeming futility, doing one's best to enjoy the wacky ride across this barely fathomable ride known as life. To me, that wasn't too much of a stretch. Regardless, that and a rather superb conversation with my Mom made for a rather unforgettable day, and a rather ideal antidote to the increasing sense of stagnation and mild existential despair that was beginning to gnaw irritatingly at my shinbones once again. Hooray!

Moreover, my Mom even provided me with a similarly gusto-infusing fact of the day!

#34: Doing 30 seconds of the yoga poses 'child's pose' and 'downward dog' every day serves to produce gamma-Aminobutyric acid (or "gaba", as it is more commonly known) - a natural anti-anxiety chemical - in your body.

So, there you have it - amidst all of the other "get fixed quick" schemes and various bandaid solutions to our myriad of daily cultural malaises, apparently a quick shot of yoga is actually pretty damn good for you on a number of fronts beyond general flexibility, stretching and relaxation. This, to me, sounds tantalizingly achievable. That said, this is coming from the guy who has made it his '_______[insert occasion]'s resolution' to stretch every day for several years now, and has followed through on this... maybe one day a year. Nonetheless, reminders are helpful, particularly with so lucrative a payload attached.

Thus concludes one of my most relentlessly positive posts in a while! Yay! Let it wash over you, similarly dosing you in warm thoughts of puppy-cuddling, back scratches, and all sorts of cloying, inspirational 'it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown!' factoids.

And, just in case those aren't doing the trick, thank God for Jennifer Lawrence.