Found Exhortation


When I was going through airport security today in San Francisco on my way to Los Angeles, the security guard made me stop. She patted my hair all around my neck and then let me go. I had read an article a few weeks ago (probably in the New York Times), written by an African-American woman complaining of the hair pat-down. The author said that though she knew many woman of color who had experienced it, she knew of no white women, no matter how curly their hair. When it happened, I thought, “well, I’m a white woman who has been given the hair pat-down.”
When my blonde friend, whose hair is thick and curly, met me at the gate, I asked if they had patted her hair. It was not a surprise the answer was “no.”. My wild and frizzy, dark, ethnically jewish hair is still scarier to this society than pretty blonde, northern european tresses.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
This vendor was right outside a Siva temple we visited on the day after we went to Rameshwaram. I don’t remember the name of the temple (I was not good about writing down the names of the temples that were added to the itinerary after the fact).
I liked the temple more than many. Partly because it was quiet and peaceful since it is off the pilgrimage path (going to some of the temples reminds me of seeing the Rolling Stones at Wembley Stadium, both for crowds and noise level) and partly because it had all eight versions of Dakshinamurti–Siva as teacher.
I was most ready for dinner after a very long day on the bus to detour to this temple, but alas, the sight of street food brings more fear of disease than it does thoughts of slaking hunger and thirst.