The Budding Optimist

The world has been unbelievably cruel lately. Nothing makes sense. Birdie and all her children were killed earlier this week. That was horrific enough. She was such an amazing, incredible person.  And now investigators have determined that my friend killed herself  and her 4 children in a murder-suicide... and that's why none of them got out of that house fire. Birdie was a good person. Now the story will be that she murdered her children. That's not it. She was completely trapped by a system she couldn't escape and men who were determined to destroy her. What do you do with this much evil and horror? How do you bear up under it? I don't know. I'm not strong enough. I was thinking recently about how much I hate vulnerability. It hurts when you take a new job and fail at it, or speak honestly and lose someone's friendship, or open your heart a bit and get rejected. Those things are painful, particularly when they happen all at once. But what do you do in a world

In 2019, Netflix released a  documentary on Bikram Choudhury , founder and guru of Bikram Yoga (in the wake of the scandal, this style is now known primarily as 26-2 or simply "hot yoga.") Beginning in 2013, former students of Bikram -- all women -- began coming forward to file lawsuits against him for everything from sexual assault to rape. Ultimately, the only case to go to trial was the one by his former legal adviser. When she insisted on investigating the rape and assault allegations, he forced her to resign.  Despite being ordered to pay $7.4 million in damages (reports vary), Bikram declared bankruptcy, fled the country, and still continues to teach his enormously popular style of yoga to those students who are willing to pay $10,000 each.  Bikram was famous for wearing only his Speedo  and a Rolex during classes. For many women, the most astounding piece of the Bikram scandal was the complicity of his ex-wife, Rajashree. Although she refused to publicly comment, Rajas