This morning I went to a presentation on the history of the marimba. The informative concert had been organized as a part of Sherrill’s conversation class, however only two of her six students ended up attending. She was pretty upset about this. I was unsurprised, and had suggested that this might happen several weeks ago, when she first pitched me her idea. Nonetheless, the concert was fun, and it was held in a beautiful house which overlooked the Grijalva river.

In the afternoon, I took a bus down to the movie theater in Tuxtla to see the movie Dune, only to arrive and find out that Dune isn’t playing for another week. Apparently, when Google lists showtimes, they are not actually for today, you have to click on them a second time to get to a new page that has the date. While I was there, I took some time to explore the mall (it was pretty standard) and got some food, then came back to my house.

Yesterday was a long post, so I will save my review of Gravity’s Rainbow for another day. Maybe Sunday. This morning was a joint Spanish lesson with Sherrill. Most Fridays, we meet at Sherrill’s apartment to make breakfast, but today we took a bus to a restaurant in Tuxtla because several weeks ago I told Sherrill that my favorite food was French toast, and she said I had to try the French toast at this one restaurant. We have been planning this trip for at least three weeks now (we were supposed to go last Friday, but I was sick). And the verdict is… it’s pretty good French toast. Certainly better than I can make on my own, but it would not be among the top three French toasts in Madison (for the record, the definitive rankings in Madison are 1. Short Stack, 2. Bloom, 3. Bassett Street Brunch Club, 4. Me, drunk at 3am with whatever is in the fridge, and in a faraway last place, Mickey’s). The restaurant itself was a large, Cheesecake-Factory-looking joint, which my Spanish teacher described as having “gringo ambience”. After eating, we stopped by the Office Depot, and then headed back to Chiapa de Corzo.

In the afternoon, (when I would normally be napping) Sherrill and I administered a level test for two retired men who wanted to start taking lessons. The men want in-person lessons, so they’ll both be working with Sherrill (who has the sole in-person class), but one of them didn’t speak much English, so I had to be there to help with the test.

I was prepared to tutor the twins after my regular classes, but they never arrived in the Zoom class. That happens. I’m sure we’ll reschedule for some later time.

As promised, today will be a review of Be Here Now. I finished Gravity’s Rainbow last night and may review that tomorrow, but I might take a bit longer to collect my thoughts on that one. Be Here Now is split into three main sections. The first is autobiographical. George Alpert was a Harvard psychologist who, alongside Timothy Leary, lost his job for experimenting with LSD. Already started down a path, and seeking deeper knowledge into the nature of consciousness, Alpert travelled to India, began studying Hinduism under the guru Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji), and changed his name to Ram Dass. This section draws an connection between psychedelic drugs and meditative practices, positing both as a similar means for exploring end better understanding consciousness (though Ram Dass repeatedly emphasizes that, unlike drugs, the highs of meditation do not wear off and are not criminally persecuted). The connection between religious/spiritual practice and psychedelic drug use is often one that is dismissed out of hand (especially by conservative, religious types), but I suspect there are many similarities at both the neurological and cultural levels. Research into possible medical uses of psilocybin (magic mushrooms) has seen a bit of a renaissance lately, and preliminary studies seem to point toward the drug as an effective anti-depressive treatment, which is interesting. I think it is likely that this drug, and perhaps similar ones, will become more widely available in the next few years (though current FDA drug scheduling makes this quite difficult. As things are now, psilocybin is a Class 1 Controlled Substance [the highest class]. This is not because it is proven to be incredibly dangerous; rather, the scheduling was largely a way for Richard Nixon to persecute the hippies, who he viewed as a political enemy).

Section two of the book was an illustrated guide to basic Hindu/Buddhist teachings and beliefs. As with many religious teachings, there were a lot of cliches, nonetheless, this section might be helpful to someone who was not as familiar with Hinduism and Buddhism, but the coverage was pretty surface-level. I found the content of this section to be pretty skip-able.

Finally, the third part of the book acts as a how-to manual containing various forms of Hindu/Buddhist wisdom and practice. This was probably the most valuable section, and has a lot of good techniques. The core of the practice is to draw attention to the way in which your mind responds to the world around it, observing your responses and dismissing them without judgement. Overtime, one is supposed to become aware that the concept of a separate self is not a reality; what you think of as ‘yourself’ is merely an ever-changing collection of feelings and judgements which can be left behind when the mind is ready. I haven’t gotten this far in my own practice, but I have noticed that through increasingly long periods of meditation, I have become more aware of the faults in my own perception and am better able to stop negative emotions as soon as they start to occur. This section also includes a lot of quotes from various wise people across many religious traditions, including many Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

I appreciate that, unlike other spiritual traditions, most of the claims made by Buddhists about their practice are empirical. As a method for understanding consciousness and the emergence of suffering, all of the teachings can be easily evaluated against one’s own lived experience. There are no Gods or spirits to worship, just a handful of observations about the nature of the mind. I anticipate that Buddhism will become more popular in the US over the next few years as more people search for meaning in their lives while rejecting traditional religions. Whitewashed meditative practices repackaged as ‘mindfulness’ have already become incredibly common, but these practices are often pitched solely as a means of increasing productivity. What they currently lack are the Four Noble Truths: the teaching that desire is the cause of suffering and that the elimination of suffering can only come through the elimination of desire. This seems at odds with the the current logic of our society, but I think that the observation and interrogation of this contradiction is a crucial step in the creation of a better future.

Overall, a valuable book. The middle portion (ironically the most eye-catching part when you flip through it) can be skipped over entirely, but the first and third sections have a lot to offer.

After teaching my classes today, a man working at the entrance of a hotel stopped me and asked if we could talk so he could practice his English. Half-an-hour later, I know his whole life’s story. I’ll stop by again after work tomorrow; it would be good to build a rapport with some locals. As it was today, I had to leave because I needed to get my clothes to the laundromat before it closed at eight. The laundromat shares a building with the school, so I talked to the people who worked there for a bit too. Upon getting back, I had to do some homework for my Data Analytics in the Humanities class; then I made scrambled eggs. I know I promised a review of Be Here Now for today, but I have like thirty pages left in Gravity’s Rainbow, one of the other books I’ve been reading, so I’m going to cut this short and finish that, and then yall will get two book reviews later this week.

Feeling good once again, I went to Spanish class for the first time in several days, then worked on some lesson plans, and took a short nap. I taught classes in the afternoon, finished a book (Be Here Now by Ram Dass; I’ll review it tomorow) and called my Grandparents. It felt good to be doing things again. It also turns out that planning lessons is much easier when you don’t have a throbbing headache.

I felt pretty normal today, aside from a few body aches. Maybe I’m done being sick. I slept most of the day, taught my classes, and ate a little (2 eggs and 2 tacos). I’ve been faked out once before this week, hopefully I’m better for real this time.

Today I woke up, took a big drink of water, then ran to the bathroom and threw up. Afterwards, I took another big drink of water to get the vomit taste out of my mouth, which caused me to throw up again (granted, by this point, there wasn’t much left to throw). The icing on the cake was the mosquito who bit my arm while I was doubled over. Thanks for that.

Slept all day. Nothing new. The COVID test was negative, but I was unable to see a doctor today because it was Sunday.

Feeling worse than yesterday, though admittedly better than two days ago. I slept on and off until around 3, then got up to check emails, read a bit, and mope around. I went out for food; in the park, there was a marimba band playing, accompanied by a modest military presence. My understanding is that the Secretary of War was visiting Chiapa de Corzo and they wanted to put on a show (side note: I find it interesting that Mexico calls the position at the head of the military the “Secretary of War” [Secretaria de la Guerra], while the US calls this position the “Secretary of Defense”. This seems a bit ironic). I listened to the music while eating dinner, until I left abruptly because I thought I might throw up. I didn’t, but you never know.

After sleeping for 12 hours straight, my fever finally broke. I feel more or less normal now. I taught my regular classes, and my weekly lesson for the twins, and I’m now at a restaurant waiting for food. I ordered a strawberry smoothie, and for some reason it has tajin seasoning in it. The whole sweet/salty/spicy thing is interesting, but I kinda just wanted a regular strawberry smootie.

Still feeling shitty (though ironically, no more digestive problems. Just a fever, sore muscles, and a headache). I left the house to get a COVID test (they were supposed to get back to me five hours ago) and get more Tylenol, but otherwise I just lated in bed all day. At four I moved five feet from the bed to the desk, taught my classes, and went back to bed. Good night.