Amy E. B.
Google
Long term practitioner. Tried to make a new class that a fave instructor offers at a newish to me space. Two busses and a Lyft to get here because one bus was very late and the other a little late. I caught a Lyft at the second bus stop to try to make the class, but I was still 6 min. late.
Breathe employee saw me stashing shoes and came out of their kitchen: “What’s your name?” Me, “uhhhh (not feeling welcome by this) She: ”I’m sorry, I work here.” Me: “Oh, ok, because that was an odd greeting. My name is… and this is my class. Two buses, I took — one so late I caught a Lyft to try to get here,” I explain. It’s only a 5 min grace period she says after checking the desk, so I’m sorry she says. This is so very uncool, I say. (Not to mention not at all all yogic.)
Two buses and a Lyft and talking to you just took some time and you won’t let me slip into the back of the class? It’s now almost 15 min too late after this exchange. Sorry. she says. So very uncool, I say, as I leave to catch my two busses back home. (I had to dash back to retrieve my hat from a cubby and the same employee made sure to watch me from behind the glass of the kitchen. Readers, I am a 50 yr old white woman wearing a baseball cap with a hot dog on it and a Patagonia jacket while carrying a large yoga mat. I look ridiculous. Not sure I see the threat to propriety. SMH)
Who benefits by policing like this? You can understand denying entry if someone does this regularly. Or if the class is packed and there isnt a space to slip in at the back. But I can’t see the point for a first week of a new year class after such effort has been explained. And at a space that seems very proud of their acknowledgment of inequities, relying on public transportation makes me late and there is no grace offered? What has been achieved except denial…of a yoga class (!) and the transmission of an unwelcome spirit? Is there any self awareness about yoga as a practice of unity or the offering of grace when freely available to you?
I’m obviously annoyed I didn’t get what I wanted: to join others to practice vinyasa. But I’m more sad than annoyed to realize that my mistake was expecting anything other than a little social-convention policing. I should have expected this and abandoned my journey. I’ve been here in Portland long enough to know that I should have just turned around and went home when the first bus was slightly behind schedule.
