Boing

The human body can be like a rubberband or a slinky or one of those new concoctions created by avante garde chefs biting of food science to make foie gras knots. I have seen my yoga teacher a seemingly normal individul tie herself into virtual knots and practically bend herself over into quarters. I have seen some of the better rock climbers at the wall twist centrifugally grasping for the next hold stretched outlandishly between points. The limits of the human body are to be noted and appreciated.

I suppose the human mind works in similar fashion. The more use and excercise it gets the more nimble and flexible it becomes. I have been receiving emails from my soon to be lawyer friends containing paragraphs of words that look similar to the contorted bodies described above. All this excercise is seemingly beneficial when applied correctly. Then how do we excercise the soul?

The strengthening of mind and body seem to be somewhat formulaic. Stretch, work out, hydrate for the body. Read, do your homework, practice for the mind. However in either of these sitiuation when the application of the excercise goes awry the maleffects are felt acutely. Incorrect training leads to contusions, sprain, pull, breakage, dehydration and at its worst death. Did you see the 20 something top ranked marathoner who recently died during Olympic trials in NY? It’s even more common to fail at education. Wrote memorization of facts, reading with out comprehension, lack of real world connection and applicability, and teaching to the test produces a brain incapable of comprehending the problems and issues of a complex world. Test scores, I believe are a neccessity, but I often wonder about the more charismatic part if the story.

So back to the soul. How is the soul nurtured and developed to produce similar personal benefits such that we are able to produce with mind and body? Lets not kid oursleves, it feels good to have a well oiled body and mind so I imagine we want the same with part number three of our human clay. We are all fully aware of the negatives resulting from lack of soul...hate crimes, terrorism, stifled scientific inquiry, lack of openess, repressed thought, methodical extermination. These seem to be very much religiously affiliated. Does soul have to equal religious inquiry? We, as in humans, used to celebrate the earth instead of God. Earth was the creator and giver of life. Some people meditate on a journey towards Nirvana. Others inflict self injury to assure their existence and this serves as there meditation. Some congregate in mega spaces and listen to a self proclaimed purveyor of faith. Who gave him his credentials? Must have been god, when the rest of us weren’t looking. We seem to seek purpose and meaning for our existence. I think therefore I am. Or I think therefore I must come up with some reason why I am able to think? And since we lack any sort of true proof of why we are here we fabricate all sorts of beautiful stories. I think our ability reason is also a punishment leaving us with an endless why.

I worked on the yearbook in highschool. We had one edition called Mind, Body, and Soul. I think there was a hole on the cover. A new form of yearbook marketing, edgy and artistic. Or maybe a window to soul of the book. However it looked somebody took a shotgun to the body and thankfully didn’t destroy and student minds. These three, notice so many good things come in threes, ideas/concepts/things appear to constitute our existence. That yearbook summarized my HS existence. There was a hole in it....right next to the mind, body, and soul.