Ross "Imposed" Shiatsu on Me... and I survived...

Ross was affiliated with a Shiatsu school on the East end of the city close to the lake shore...
It was an old neighbourhood... mostly immigrants... workers... and bohemian passers by... 
Every day he took the bus and went to the downtown core... Union Station... and from their walked to work for half an hour whenever it was not raining or too cold for a retired chaplain...
He loved the streetcars too and did not mind riding on them... He greeted everybody on the streetcar and was happy for that... 
"My thumbs are doing the magic...," He boasted to me... "My Master at the school tells me that my hands have all that it takes... My palms have a warmth which is transmitted to the patient... My hands have healing power..." 
It reminded me of the televangelist healing on the TV programs... But Ross's quest was genuine and his Master indeed had praised his hands... Coaxed him into more and more devotion... I was fearing that Ross was beginning to sing into an abyss... a sinkhole with hazardous consequences...
I was worried for him and his financial well being...
Six months into the Shiatsu adventure... He set shop at home too... All he needed was a mat and his thumbs... Ross had much more than that...
Friends visited him in the morning... Strangers came to his mat in the afternoons... 
He was happy that he is indeed needed... "People come to me for therapy..." He insisted... and I kept my peace... He pointed to a beer-bellied older guy... and insisted that he was losing weight because of his treatment... But I did not see any difference... The guys belly was still sagging and the pants almost falling...  
 
I did not believe Ross's claims... But I kept silence... Did not want to upset him...
***
Several times he had hinted that I should get a Massage too... But immediately added; "I know you are a head over the body guy... You don't believe much in therapy... even you do not take pills when you have a cold... Your head governs you..." That was true, but he did not know that I do not appreciate people touching my body... 
I don't like hands crawling over all over me... and he was correct, definitely my head governed my body... But I was wanted Ross to be happy and succumbed to his requests...

I do not believe that crawling snakes over my body are therapeutic... Cool and healing 

But on a Saturday I headed to his downtown clinic and abandoned myself to his thumbs... He was happy like a child... and I was depressed because I became a medium for non-essential fancy... 
But that's the stuff that friendships are made of... I was depressingly joyful... 
The next day my body was soar all over... and I do not think it was any healthier... Ross told me that the pain is caused because of the years long imbalances in my body.... I pretended that I agree... But Ross had realized that I will never subjected myself to the painful experience again... and he was absolutely correct...

***

... And the Diogenes Moment ... 

Unbelievably In Italy of all the places on Earth... 

Iran's President visited Italy this past week for reintroducing himself... and Iran to Europe... and see what happened...

Boxes covered nude statues in the Capitoline Museum in Rome during 

the visit by Mr. Rouhani... The Italian bureaucrats did not want to 

insult the sensitives of Islam...

A Question...?

Why European women have to cover themselves when visiting Saudi Arabia or Iran... or the ISIS controlled lands...?

Why the Judaeo-Christian West succumbed to the IRRATIONAL sensitives and diktats of the Muslim East...

Ross knew... Money corrupts... money dictates terms... People are greedy and Ross said; "This culture is so rotten that people will shoot their mother for money...!"

Indeed they will... The Italians were the sad example of materialist corruption last week...

The statue is covered with cloths... Ross always wanted to visit Europe to appreciate the art and culture ...  They covered the statue so as Iran will open its purse... Their money is crushing the European culture...

Florence is preparing for the Rouhani visit... and David is ashamed...
Did David eat an apple... Like Adam and Eve...?

But France responded in a different way...!
When the Iranian President insisted that they should serve Halal meat, according to Islamic culture... and no wine at the official dinner... They did not succumb to the absurd request... They just cancelled the dinner... 
BRAVO...!

Also...
The Prison Castle has become a money making tourist attraction...!

Built between 1838 and 1855, and closed in 1989, the notorious Siberian prison was considered stricter than most. As many as 2,500 inmates considered enemies of the state were executed here during the Soviet Union’s political repression campaign of 1937-1938, and it’s believed that no one ever escaped the "Caste"...

Guests will be treated to prison food and check the solitary confinement cells and even stay in the cell for an evening or few hours during the day... experience the clunky iron locks fixed to the cell block doors... caress them and reminisce the times when Dostoevsky , Czar Nicholas and other politically unwanted people were confined to the cells... 
  

The cell block and the heavy doors... No one escaped the "Castle..." No one dared to...!

  

Guests can now check into sparsely decorated “sweat-box” punishment cells. 

An inmate mannequin has the right side of his head shaved – a practice that made it easy to identify escapees... and shoot them... 

Dostoevsky survived The Crime and Punishment... 

I grew up with his books... Ross loved the books...

It will be difficult to imagine a world devoid of the Greats... Dostoevsky... Gogol... Pushkin... and the rest...

They created beauty... promoted understanding and harmony...

I grew up when literature was not an escape from everyday life... But essential to resist the invasion of the apparatchiks... It was the safer way of resistance... 

Ross loved the books but hated the Big Brothers passionately... His Shiatsu was his form of helping and rebelling... I wish he had written his thoughts and his fancies...

But that's too late now...