Sunday, August 13, 2006

It's time to move!

Guess what? Another entry about what now looks, years later, to be another plot.

All of this time, the first year or year and a half, we have been practicing in the park. The park was sort of central to the majority of students. Many students lived in the city. The ones that did not were spread around outside of the city in a vaguely circular way. They all had around the same distance to travel. Except for poor George and Patty. They had to drive 2 hours to get to class. I don't know how they did it.

I have detailed that I felt that I was being pushed out. I have described the large size of the class at around the year or year an a half mark. At least 35 and maybe more people. What I have not spoken of is the general class demeanor.

I described James as the troublemaker of the group. He would often challenge Mike on something or the other. The conversation would continue until James was basically told to shut up.

James and Peter had developed something of a friendship after Peter joined. They were both single men. I learned later that they went out looking for women together. I also wonder if they were the same religion. Peter was jewish. I wonder if James was also Jewish because there were some similarities in their appearances.

What I am leading up to of course is that Peter and James spent time talking to each other. And James was described as the class troublemaker.....so you can see where this is leading? I think James's attitude rubbed off on Peter. I say this because at some point in time, Peter began to question Mike.

Mike always encouraged questions. It was funny though. Everytime someone had a question, the session usually ended with the person being told to shut up, and the group breaking up immediately for physical practice. It looked like Mike asked for challenges, then broke up the group because someone really did challenge him.

I don't know if it was James and Peter, or maybe there were similar people among the women. I do know that the women also had begun to speak up and ask questions. If you have ever paid attention to group dynamics, the group had turned from a group with a focus and a purpose to a group with doubts and uncertainty. Nothing big like a crisis, just some low level bubbling kind of discontent.


At around this time it was suggested or stated that the Sunday morning practices were going to be moved. They would be at a location that was 25 to 30 miles away from the current location. That does not sound like much. Unless of course you do not own a car. Like me. That is the first thing I thought. The classes are moving and I will not be able to attend.

I know that some of the women were in the same position I was in. No car. I think all of the other men had a car. They were all upper class.

Besides the question of transportion was the distance involved. It was not just 20 or 25 miles to the new location. That translated to another 30 minutes of driving. The route to the new location was on a main highway that was frequently crowded with traffic.

Nothing about the move made sense. The majority of the people would have to travel an additonal 25 miles to the class. They would have to pay money for the gas. They would have to budget extra time for commuting. For the majority of the class, the move was an inconvenience.

I think that was the point.

I think this was the first step in Mike's plan to get rid of the dead wood. He was going to make the class more difficult to attend so that only the people that truly wanted to attend would spend the extra money and exert the extra effort to make it out to the new location.

The plan worked to some extent. I did notice a reduction in the class size after the move to the new location. I also noticed that the amount of absenteeism increased. People waking up on Sunday morning would realize they just could not make the class with the travel time required.

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