Yuri Herzberger

This is Yuri Herzberger (he prefers Uri) from Victoria B.C. in Canada, he was born on April 12th, 1961, and his parents, in a bout of naive and misguided leftist enthusiasm, called him Yuri (Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union flew in space that day). Uri's life (most of it, anyway) was a long string of humiliations; the first he clearly remembers was in the backyard of his first love: Florence Smith (they were both about five). Uri brought a drawing of a table he made for her in blue crayon but her older brother took it and rubbed it on his bottom laughing. That is how it all went, at school, University and later at work ... when he was invited to parties he felt humiliated, thinking it was for pity when he wasn't invited he felt humiliated for being left out. He had a string of meaningless affairs where he thought the girls went with him for mercy and he felt humiliated, but when girls rejected him he also felt humiliated. His Uriah Heep humiliations were more the pop-group type then the Dickensian sycophant version ... but still, hurt like crazy. Then, one day, about six and a half years ago, his then-girlfriend Aby-Gail took him on a free-friend-class-pass to her Yoga studio down Douglas street. What he experienced next, he could not describe, he tried to keep up with the class and thought he didn't but, when about an hour and a half later, he lay still in, what he was told is, the final Savasana, he realized that for the first time for as long as he could remember he was fine: no feelings of guilt or shame. There was no pressure, no expectation, no judgment ... just warm smiles and encouragement. Uri lives with his now-fiancee Aby-Gail and they go to daily Yoga sessions. Full of eternal gratitude, he bought her a tat of her choice and, when we met in Rome a few weeks ago, they were both seriously considering teacher training. Uri still listens to his Uriah Heep records, his favorite is "Easy Living" from "Demons and Wizards".