I love this!! As an ex-teacher of the humanities, I kept thinking: “If I were still teaching, I would want to use this as the basis for a whole segment of the course.” As a writer, I especially love the emphasis on demonstrating the importance of fact, reason, and simple intelligence —and bringing the receipts!—in our own work. As someone who has always felt a powerful communication of joy, possibility, love and acceptance of our bodies through music and dance, that section was both a surprise (how many social critics “get” this?) and a delight. A personal note about dance: I started to have some back problems a year or so back. It was hard to even walk any distance without pain. But when I danced, even/especially when engaged in Latin movement that you’d think would tax an aging back, I had no pain at all! I’ve since learned from Feldenkrais lessons about how this is so, and it’s helped me to engage my body in a more fluid way doing ordinary walking and activities. This may seem to have nothing to do with the more “spiritual” dimension that you talk about, but as Feldenkrais teaches, it’s all connected. Your students must love it—and have lots of examples—when you talk about music and dance in your class. (BTW, as a newbie to substack and a techno-dolt, I’d love to know how you do all those personalized buttons!)
I love this!! As an ex-teacher of the humanities, I kept thinking: “If I were still teaching, I would want to use this as the basis for a whole segment of the course.” As a writer, I especially love the emphasis on demonstrating the importance of fact, reason, and simple intelligence —and bringing the receipts!—in our own work. As someone who has always felt a powerful communication of joy, possibility, love and acceptance of our bodies through music and dance, that section was both a surprise (how many social critics “get” this?) and a delight. A personal note about dance: I started to have some back problems a year or so back. It was hard to even walk any distance without pain. But when I danced, even/especially when engaged in Latin movement that you’d think would tax an aging back, I had no pain at all! I’ve since learned from Feldenkrais lessons about how this is so, and it’s helped me to engage my body in a more fluid way doing ordinary walking and activities. This may seem to have nothing to do with the more “spiritual” dimension that you talk about, but as Feldenkrais teaches, it’s all connected. Your students must love it—and have lots of examples—when you talk about music and dance in your class. (BTW, as a newbie to substack and a techno-dolt, I’d love to know how you do all those personalized buttons!)