This is incredible, Renee! I will be re-reading it at least few times. I feel like I keep making the same comment on your posts, so forgive my lack of originality, but once again your words have brought to mind my notion of the self as a vast collective, a collaboration. And I definitely include the body as this self. Every cell, every organelle, every molecule of DNA, every atom, I see as a being unto itself that is living, lived, and aware. I so resonate with your questioning of "the body as mine" because there is no singularity here. Maybe I could go with something like "the body is ours" but I'd have to ponder it a bit more. Thank you, as always, for your deep wisdom!
I'm delighted to read that this spoke to you, and I love that there is a theme running through your responses! You offer: "Every cell, every organelle, every molecule of DNA, every atom, I see as a being unto itself that is living, lived, and aware." What a radical departure from the the handed-down perspective of "dead matter" and "physical body," (which translates as a body *not* enminded and *not* aware). So, in the name of being repetitive, I will add a reflection by Thomas Berry to the fold, the reflection not repetitive but my calling on Thomas Berry, quite so. In a talk he gave in the 90's (I believe), he dropped this radical notion into the room: "Carbon thinks." He was animating the potential for life in matter, giving that elemental structural component enmindedness already and always there. It strikes me that you're offering the same, stretching beyond carbon to the foundation of all existence, because "every atom" is every materiality of the universe.
Thank you for this. I love where you take these explorations.
Dear Renée, You will feel my delight in this essay when I tell you that I read it a few paragraphs at a time while eating toast, drinking dark tea, holding the cat who climbed up my chest, watching my ceiling be a ceiling, saying good morning to my rumpled firstborn, watching the living shadow of an artificial plant for movement, stroking my own hand, and mentally composing celebratory comments to put here. Each pause took its own slow turn. You have clarity of mind about issues that swirl and perplex. This is a joy.
The phenomenological ways you lived into the words on the page with the unfolding of your surroundings could not be more demonstrative of the contents of this essay. For this, please accept my delight and joy with your own.
What an amazing thesis Renee. You masterfully weave together many complex ideas that leave quite an impression. Calling to question 'What is a body?' is huge. Allowing us to contemplate its composition - that the living and lived aspects culminate in the membranes that make contact with the outer world is an amazing concept that draws to a visual conclusion. Well, not really a conclusion but more of an image of everything softly being held in this vessel and then moving beyond to things, as yet, unknown.
Thank you for sharing the impression that lingered in you contemplating the body anew and the image of "everything softly being held . . . and then moving beyond to things, as yet, unknown." There is a sense of emanation in your words to the as yet, unknown--all of it emergent. It is novel to imagine body as emergent moment-by-moment with the immediate surroundings and the immediate surroundings emergent with body. And yet, here we are shining a soft light on something we had not imagined could be so.
This is incredible, Renee! I will be re-reading it at least few times. I feel like I keep making the same comment on your posts, so forgive my lack of originality, but once again your words have brought to mind my notion of the self as a vast collective, a collaboration. And I definitely include the body as this self. Every cell, every organelle, every molecule of DNA, every atom, I see as a being unto itself that is living, lived, and aware. I so resonate with your questioning of "the body as mine" because there is no singularity here. Maybe I could go with something like "the body is ours" but I'd have to ponder it a bit more. Thank you, as always, for your deep wisdom!
Jenna,
I'm delighted to read that this spoke to you, and I love that there is a theme running through your responses! You offer: "Every cell, every organelle, every molecule of DNA, every atom, I see as a being unto itself that is living, lived, and aware." What a radical departure from the the handed-down perspective of "dead matter" and "physical body," (which translates as a body *not* enminded and *not* aware). So, in the name of being repetitive, I will add a reflection by Thomas Berry to the fold, the reflection not repetitive but my calling on Thomas Berry, quite so. In a talk he gave in the 90's (I believe), he dropped this radical notion into the room: "Carbon thinks." He was animating the potential for life in matter, giving that elemental structural component enmindedness already and always there. It strikes me that you're offering the same, stretching beyond carbon to the foundation of all existence, because "every atom" is every materiality of the universe.
Thank you for this. I love where you take these explorations.
With love,
Renée
Dear Renée, You will feel my delight in this essay when I tell you that I read it a few paragraphs at a time while eating toast, drinking dark tea, holding the cat who climbed up my chest, watching my ceiling be a ceiling, saying good morning to my rumpled firstborn, watching the living shadow of an artificial plant for movement, stroking my own hand, and mentally composing celebratory comments to put here. Each pause took its own slow turn. You have clarity of mind about issues that swirl and perplex. This is a joy.
Dear Tara,
The phenomenological ways you lived into the words on the page with the unfolding of your surroundings could not be more demonstrative of the contents of this essay. For this, please accept my delight and joy with your own.
With love,
Renée
What an amazing thesis Renee. You masterfully weave together many complex ideas that leave quite an impression. Calling to question 'What is a body?' is huge. Allowing us to contemplate its composition - that the living and lived aspects culminate in the membranes that make contact with the outer world is an amazing concept that draws to a visual conclusion. Well, not really a conclusion but more of an image of everything softly being held in this vessel and then moving beyond to things, as yet, unknown.
Well done my friend.
Dear Donna,
Thank you for sharing the impression that lingered in you contemplating the body anew and the image of "everything softly being held . . . and then moving beyond to things, as yet, unknown." There is a sense of emanation in your words to the as yet, unknown--all of it emergent. It is novel to imagine body as emergent moment-by-moment with the immediate surroundings and the immediate surroundings emergent with body. And yet, here we are shining a soft light on something we had not imagined could be so.
With love,
Renée