I’ve not been a viewer of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, though I understand it is a very popular show. And frankly, meeting my first cross-dressing friend was not on the radar for what I expected to experience at this International Conference of neurologists, doctors, physical therapists, research scientists, somatic therapists, and other practitioners in one of the world’s preeminent universities - La Sorbonne.

WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT THEY FEEL HURT, THAT YOU HAVE HURT THEM, THAT THEY ARE IN PAIN….

I viscerally remembered reacting to this woman’s menacing approach to pinch my cheek.

I’d like to make a case for mindfulness in the parking lots of the world. I believe that mindfulness in parking lots (throw in a little kindness, while you’re at it) could greatly enhance public harmony and improve safety in these under-monitored driving locales.

Even just living one day in these kinds of terrors is dramatically disabling, but most forms of abuse or war don’t just take place in one day, they take place over a period of time. The nervous system becomes habituated, patterned to the situation in order to do its job of survival.