The Love Issue
Glad tidings for 2013! Now that we survived 2012, we’re off to an electrifying start. With the prospect of SF teams winning both the World Series and the Super Bowl in short order, collective spirits are palpably high. And now, we too are adding to the aggregate temperature with this, our Love issue.
Love is a complex and far-ranging subject, so first, I want to thank our senior editor, Carrie Grossman, who led the charge in skillfully assembling a compelling medley of different stories, beginning with our feature by Reggie Ray about Tantric consorts. That theme is picked up in the brilliant cover art and pictorial of Radha-Krishna paintings by renowned devotional artist B. G. Sharma.
After looking at the pictures, we suggest beginning at the beginning, with Sonia Choquette’s piece on the necessity for self-love. It’s got to begin there, right? Then you can go off in many directions, such as Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee’s “Need for Love: Reflections by a Mystic” or Bernie Prior’s piece, “The Power of Attraction: How Great Love Caresses the Unknown,” before Marc Gafni weighs in about sex and the wisdom of the spiritually incorrect.
On the subject of sex, the Human Awareness Institute’s Chas August encourages us to ask ourselves, “What is sex?” Hint: it’s more than just wiggle-wiggle-pop. While Mali Apple and Joe Dunn prompt us to “Create the Love of Your Life: Keep the Life in Your Love,” Claudia Six encourages us to stop avoiding difficult conversations with our partners.
I am particularly grateful to Philip Goldberg, who penned a piece about Swami Vivekananda’s visit to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago 150 years ago. In my late teens and early 20s, it was the writings of Vivekananda that woke me up to the Vedas. I get chills just thinking back on it. The Vedanta Center in San Francisco is planning a series of events to commemorate this landmark visit, which jumpstarted the introduction of yoga to America.
We enjoyed seeing you at Yoga Journal Conference, and we anticipate seeing you at the Wisdom 2.0 conference this month at the Concourse Exhibition Center. This looks to be splendid, bridging the worlds of business titans and technical entrepreneurs with practical information from contemporary social leaders and wisdom teachers.
Next month, we shift gears from sex and love to bring you March’s Food issue. Always an exciting transition. Of course, there’s plenty to explore in the world of food. April is our Green issue.
In the meantime, thank you for your feedback. Keep it coming, online at CommonGroundMag.com or via email at CommonGroundSF at Gmail.com.
As ever, thank you for supporting our advertisers, without whom there would be no free community magazine. And why not become an advertiser yourself?
From the Heart,
ROB SIDON, PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF