Kathleen lays on her back in the tub, her body submerged, only her face peaking above the water. She moves herself slowly back and forth, repeating the mantra “om … om.”
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She eventually sits up. “What were you doing?” I ask her. “I was practicing yoga,” she answers.
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Now, I have just covered Hinduism in my Intro Religions class, but I don’t repeat lectures at home. So I continue my inquiry: “Where did you learn about yoga?” Kathleen answers: “You know, we play that game on the Wii where you do yoga poses.” She is right. We sometimes play Wii Fit. But that game doesn’t include mantras.
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“Ok, but they don’t say ‘om’ in the game, do they?” “No,” Kathleen thinks for a minute, “but Tenderheart, on the Care Bears, does yoga on Wednesdays. He always says ‘om.'”
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Thus did I unravel the mystery of my six year old’s apparent spiritual precociousness. Good thing for her too. She is always telling me that she can’t remember what I said thirty seconds ago. If it turned out that she could remember whole past lives, she was going to have some explaining to do.
Kathleen the Shaman
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