JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge sometimes wears yoga clothes under her black robe.
At noon on the last Friday of every month, Duval County Judge Eleni Derkie strips off the robe and heads to the front lawn of Jacksonville’s courthouse where she leads a yoga class that’s free to anyone who shows up.
The Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/2ppjvXJ ) reports Derke has taught yoga since 2014 but says her counterparts in the legal profession aren’t always the easiest converts.
Courtroom bailiffs sometimes tease her, but Derke says yoga provides a few moments of peace during an otherwise stressful day. Sometimes, she’s even been known to urge jurors to stretch and take deep breaths during lengthy trials.
She’ll continue the classes this year until the weather gets too hot.
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I got absolutely no problem with this. Anyone that does, I’m assuming has some other issues working on them that find yoga objectionable for some dumb reason, though I can’t understand how or why that would be. So long as she’s not doing it while she should be judging…more power to her and those that care to join her. I think its kinda cool.
This’ll bring out the fundies.
Years ago as a PR intern at a community college one of the local “churches” bitched and moaned until a yoga class was evicted from using one of the rooms for its weekly session. They had been using the room for 3-4 years before they were “discovered” by the local yahoos.
“Doing yoga allows the devil to enter the body through their deep breathing,” said the minister.
Boy was I pissed when the college acceded to the wannabe snake handlers’ demands and kicked the meditators off campus. But as the lord’s will would have it, the “Praise the lord and pass the snakes” crowd got their comeuppance when the local Young Men’s Cristian Association (YMCA) allowed the yoga workshop to use its facilities — for free! — and, because of the brouhaha, the group’s popularity grew so much that it started meeting twice a week.
I asked one of the other PR folks who knew the Y’s director what happened when the group showed up to protest. The director’s response was simply that the YMCA’s mission was to serve the entire community. She then offered to arrange for the snake handlers to take introductory yoga classes for free.
No word on how many god-fearing Christians showed up to take part in the Young Men’s Christian Association’s offer to lay down a mat and take some deep breaths.