Befriending our bodies...

I'm doing some reading for class.  Well, I'm trying to do some reading.  My roommates - yay Craig's list! - are a couple and they're presently working out a disagreement.  Loudly.

So I can't concentrate.  But, this one reading is pretty interesting, and since it mentions walking I thought I'd share it.  It's by my professor, R. W. Morris, and the article is called "Beyond Body-Spirit Dualism" (2001).  Here are a few segments:

"The automobile, which Borgmann (1992) aptly refers to as the 'vehicle of modernism' (p.58), has gone a long way in replacing the bicycle and walking – two modes of transportation that put us in direct contact with our bodies and the outside world.  Walking activates all the senses.  It allows us to slow down long enough to see, hear, smell, touch and sometimes even taste.  The car and its supporting cast of gadgets, furthermore, has rendered the body almost superfluous (Le Breton, 200, p.13)..."

"...Even a mundane technology like the automatic garage door opener radically severs the possibility of an embodied relationship with nature.  The price 'is any real relationship to the physical world.  If you live in a suburban home and commute to a parking garage somewhere, that ten seconds opening the garage door might be nearly the only rain you ever feel' (p. 247).  In northern countries like Canada the growing popularity of the remote car starter means that the ten seconds it takes to walk from your home or place of work to your car might be the only cold you ever feel..."

"...The fitness revolution is largely rooted in our ever-increasing preoccupation with the appearance of our bodies.  Taken at face value, this phenomenon seems to indicate an attitude of wonder and care for the human body.  A closer look, however, reveals a new attempt to escape our moral, corruptible and imperfect bodies.  Here our bodies are objects, 'commodious surfaces', to be altered, enhanced, perfected and make forever youthful.  The body is not a friend but rather an enemy to be defeated."

So, let's make friends with our bodies and take them for a walk! 

As well, if you are interested in the topic of body/mind separation, you should check this out:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
It's a lecture by Ken Robinson about schools killing creativity and educating from the head up "and slightly to one side".  A super good talk, funny too. 

(P.S., TED.com is an awesome site) 

My roommates aren't fighting anymore.  They have the music turned up and one of them is singing loudly.  Off tune.  Save me.