Motion

Motion: the thing which allows us to leave the previous and move on to the next moment of life. It is the characteristic which separates life from death. Without movement our lungs cannot breathe, our blood cannot traverse the circuitous route of vessels to deliver oxygen to the body, and our nerves cannot deliver those thoughts which define our individual self.

As humans we crave motion. We look forward to our afternoon run, feeling our legs move under us as they connect and reconnect with the ground below. We spend hours repeating the same movements of fingers and hands until we have mastered a piece of music or conquered our opponents in some form of raquet sport. We save our money and our time so that we can move ourselves from one hemisphere of the globe to the next, defining such gross movement as "travel." We envy those with vehicles that can produce faster, quicker, more accurate motion than our own.

Our lives are often defined in terms of motion "a journey," "being stuck in a rut," or "about to take the next tep."

Our jobs are often defined in terms of motion "a rat race," a "climbing of the corporate ladder," or "feeling trapped at the bottom."

Even our thoughts "race," our words "stick," and our feelings "float on Cloud Nine" or topple us "head over heels." Where does all this motion take us?

We're told that 10,000 steps a day is encouraged to maintain good health, but what if those 10,000 steps furthur define the same rutted routine that we've been doing for years of our lives? And what if our thoughts continue to traverse the same boring path inside our mind, never taking the "road not taken"? Is that healthy motion? Is there such a thing as healthy and unhealthy motion or is just the lack of motion that may be unhealthy? But then again, sometimes it seems sufficient to "be still."

So not per usual, I leave you with no quote. Just a post about motion.

Just Read: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
Currently Reading: Numbers, Status Syndrome by Michael Marmot
Going to Read: The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis