Stepping in It
IN BERKELEY DURING the sixties, “shacking up” was one of the most common forms of dating. Getting married was considered old-fashioned—and not in a good way. My future husband and I were living together as we finished our undergraduate degrees in 1968 and contemplated immigrating to Canada so he would not be drafted for the Vietnam War. I had located a yoga camp in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains, and I believed being among yogis and yoginis would help us make a smooth transition from Berkeley to Canada. Imagine my surprise when I learned from the yoga camp director that my “fiancé” and I would not be sharing a room in the Catholic province of Que bec since it was against their laws.
When I shared the news with my live-in boyfriend and future husband, Peter Schireson, he suggested that we get mar ried to avoid the hassle. Not the most romantic proposal, but a proposal nonetheless. The two religions—Zen and
