MINDFULNESS: Mantras and meows

This week I was editing an interesting book on how "mindfulness" activities like yoga and meditation have become hugely popular in America but in the process have been ruthlessly stripped of their traditional Buddhist underpinnings so that they'd be more palatable to U.S. consumers.
The author, a sociologist and a very good writer (the two don't always go together), described how a network of highly educated, wealthy and well-intentioned "contemplatives" have adapted these practices and brought them into businesses like Google and -- yes -- Monsanto, schools, health care offices, and even the military. The author did her best to translate some of their free-flowing, jargon-laden and not strictly grammatical explanations.
My point in mentioning this that one practical suggestion for maintaining mindfulness during the day is to pause regularly and pet your cat. Judging by the amount of Clarence and Tina hair on my keyboard, I think I have that one covered!

EAST FALLOWFIELD: Your state tax dollars at work

A few times a year business takes me into Conshohocken, and on my way home on Thursday along Route 82, between Coatesville and Ercildoun, I saw a new sign: "Plant Enterance."
I simply had to snap a photo of the misspelling, so I pulled over and walked back to the sign.
Right next to it, lying on the ground, was the sign it had replaced.
It read "Plant Entrance."
PennDOT, you had ONE JOB . . .

The new sign.

The sign it replaced.

KENNETT SQUARE: Tea on the move

More intra-borough shuffling around: Mrs. Robinson's Tea Shop, now on North State Street, will be moving around the corner into the former Torelli's men's store at 129 East State Street as of April 22.

KIDS THESE DAYS: Some positive news

Of course I've been attending the Young Relative's high-school track meets this spring, and here are a few things I've noticed.
I've seen kids sacrificing for the good of the team (OK, maybe not happily; but honestly, who among us ever does?). I've seen athletes supporting each other and going out of their way to congratulate their opponents.
I've seen tough young men and women competing in 80-degree weather, 35-degree weather, and even snow flurries with fortitude and grace (and mittens). Perhaps those mornings of sitting at the bus stop in Mom's heated minivan didn't turn them into spoiled mollycoddles after all!
Perhaps most movingly, I watched a mentally disabled athlete compete in a race, thanks to her teammates who ran beside her. As she crossed the finish line with a smile, the crowd burst into applause and cheers.
Following the news can cause us to despair about the future. Don't. Go to a track meet instead.

OXFORD: A wee bit loud

Trust me on this: bagpipes should not be played indoors. On Saturday evening we went to a concert by the Celtic band the Rogues at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Oxford. There's a reason why bagpipes were traditionally used as a "shock-and-awe" tactic in battle back in the olden days: they can be overwhelmingly loud. 
As soon as the two pipers and two drummers started playing, two little girls in the audience dashed down the side aisle of the church, covering their ears. The din was deafening. We tried to get our money's worth, but after 20 minutes the desire to preserve our hearing won out. Even so, my ears were ringing the rest of the evening.

WASHINGTON, DC: Emancipation Day

Why did we get an extra two days to file our taxes? Because April 15 was a Sunday and April 16 was Emancipation Day, a Washington, D.C., holiday that commemorates President Lincoln's April 16, 1862, signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act. The act freed some 3,100 slaves in D.C. nine months before the better-known Emancipation Proclamation. Emancipation Day has been a D.C. holiday since 2005, and the federal government also observes it.