Is anyone else tired of looking at Angelina Jolie holding her forehead in that new movie ad? I sure am.

I actually like Angelina (go figure) but this ad is everywhere and it's annoying me.

Want to know how strange I am? I entered a local newspaper contest to win passes to see both "A Mighty Heart" and "La Vie en Rose." I entered both Boyfriend and myself. I won "La Vie en Rose." Boyfriend won "A Mighty Heart." And we didn't go see either, because I work on impulse and I didn't feel like it. If that wasn't such a disturbing assessment of myself, I'd laugh.

Last night was meditation class numero due. Less people than the first time - six versus eleven - but it was great all the same. I enjoyed it. As soon as I walked in, took off my shoes and took a look around, I felt so peaceful and happy. I was extremely tempted to text Boyfriend and say, "I love this place," but thought that was unnecessarily hippie-ish.


This time we talked about the law of karma, and the fact that every action we take - in this life and in past lives - has a karmic reaction, good or bad. When we meditate, however, we begin to withdraw from the law of karma so that we don't build up any for the future, and we can even burn up what has already been created, just by reciting mantra. This is how you avoid being reborn, because nobody wants to keep coming back here for another round of suffering.

I was thinking last night about how I have become somewhat spiritually impressionable. Let me explain. As I listened to the yogi speak, I wasn't thinking, "Now I will believe everything he says, no matter what it is." That would be ridiculous. But I was giving his words a certain weight, allowing his ideas to resonate and really thinking about them. I think this is my way of making up for all the years when I was unable to do that. "Don't listen to other ideas! Don't believe them! They're wrong! They are of the Devil!" "But how do you know?" "Never mind! Anyone who believes different than us is going to hell!"

My parents never said that, but this was the attitude of the church we went to and consequently, of our family. Some people try to sugar coat it - "Jesus is the only way. But we love all people and should do our best to bring them to him so that they can be saved" - and others do not. Regardless, I feel so liberated to be able to go to a meditation class and think about karma and reincarnation. They are ideas like any others; why can't I think about them?

Now if only I were free enough to discuss these ideas with my parents. (As I espoused the doctrines to Boyfriend over burritos, he nodded and smiled and said, simply, "I want to be there when you explain these things to your mother.")