Pope Francis visited the United States from Sept 22 through Sept 27. Over the weekend of Sept 26 and 27, for 36 hours, the Pope maintained a hectic schedule throughout the Philadelphia area. His schedule included a visit to Independence Hall, several visits on the Parkway, a night stay at St Charles Seminary in Lower Merion, a trip to visit inmates at a prison in Frankford and a trip back and forth to the airport. It kind of reminded me of my weekly schedule. So, the next few slides is my invitation to the Pope of what he can visit on his next visit to Philadelphia. We’ve accompanied this slide show with the music, Shanti. This song was composed in 2001 by Liora Fadlon and this is part of the Israeli dance repertoire. But the name, Shanti, is also the Sanskrit word for peace

During the weekend of the Pope’s visit, the Sunday morning class did meet. Several people couldn’t make it and your instructor, despite his own perceived limitations, led the session. But generally Grant handles this and you see him in the middle of the circle. Your instructor deals with two genres of dance: Israeli dance (which is indicated in this slide) And Salsa (discussed later) In any week your instructor can be dealing with 2 through 5 Israeli dance classes. This slide focuses on The Germantown Sunday morning session which meets from 10 to 12:30 Since everyone is welcome at the session, the Pope could have followed your instructor to the dance venues. Here we see the pope in the middle of the circle leading the dancing Your Instructor spends a lot of time dancing. For older folks, dancing is a very good physical activity for the following reasons: Low impact athletics Low impact athletics Good Aerobics Good Aerobics Mentally stimulating. Mentally stimulating. Of course, most of this has not been working for your instructor, but he keeps trying

Your Instructor also enjoys dancing Salsa (Mambo) and Rueda (a variation of salsa). The Rueda class meets on Wednesday night and the Salsa classes meet on Saturday night at St Paul’s Episcopal church in Chestnut Hill The sessions are run by Flaco considered as one of the chief salseros in this area Women like to dance. Men not so much. Therefore there always is a need for male partners. We certainly could have fit the Pope in as seen here. Also, Mambo, Salsa and Rueda are latin based and culturally the Pope would have felt very comfortable with the class

Twice a week your instructor works out with his personal trainer: The one and only Rob Schwartz. Among Rob’s achievements are Being a part of the Lower Merion basketball team that featured Kobe Bryant Holding the world low plank record for a few weeks in His record of 80 minutes 10 seconds was later eclipsed Running the weekly HYPE exercise class at Hope Community Church The Pope certainly was invited to our workput. Perhaps it would have looked like this:

Through some business contacts I belong to a group that calls themselves the Bally’s Buddies. This group exercises at the old Bally’s in King Of Prussia, now LA Fitness. Although generally I’m at Sweat fitness, most Friday mornings see me at the pool at Bally’s with the group. I would have extended an invitation to the Pope – I’m sure the others wouldn’t have minded – and it might have looked like this with the Pope having conversations with Eileen on the left and the unofficial King Of Prussia meeter and greeter, LaVera, in the pool.

In the last few years, basically to cool down from Rob’s exercise routine, I have been doing 2 to 4 classes of yoga at Stillpoint studios per week. In a prior situation, I know that I am not allowed to take pictures of any class. So, I allowed someone to take a picture of me in lotus position. Using a stock picture of a man and woman in the same position, we present a composite of a Yoga class where the Pope (and myself) appear

At my age, all this exercise can be a bit painful. So, on Friday afternoon I have a standing appointment with Brandie Nemchenko, a coowner of the King Of Prussia family wellness center, for a chiropractic workout to relieve a recurring rotator cuff injury. Below is Brandie working on me but I would not be against a therapist of a higher power as you can see.

Of course, my life is just not exercising the physical. There is a need for the mental. Several days of the week I play chess with a friend of mine, John Hopkins. I’ve known John, his wife and kids for a long time but playing chess at Barnes and Noble is something we started about a year ago Of course, since I normally lose, perhaps the Pope’s visit might provide me a edge from a higher level

Of course, there is always my teaching assignments. A week after the Pope’s visit, our classes had a visitor – Daravann Yi. Daravann’s story of escaping the killing fields of Cambodia is quite dramatic and remarkable. Daravann has used his experience with cruelty to be able to turn his experiences around and empathize with others. I think Pope Francis would be able to relate to this concept and to Daravann. So, perhaps if the Pope was still in the area on Tuesday, we might have been seeing…………

Years ago, I generally ate out on a continual basis. Age has changed this and now I’m on a continual diet. But, especially on Friday after spending the morning at the Bally’s pool, dealing with Rob and the weight machines, having a Yoga class and prior to having my spine cracked by Brandie, we connect with a few friends at Andy’s Place, a neighborhood restaurant. The Pope would certainly have been invited and since Tom treated (From left to right is Me, John Hopkins and Tom Hough) it wouldn’t have been too expensive either.