31 October

Probably the greatest thing I’ve ever learned is that how an anglepoise lamp operates is also how our bodies work. They support us in whatever position or shape we choose at the time. Standing, sitting, walking etc. All of your tissues are elastically wrapped around you, to support you without effort, just like these lamps will sit in any position we put them in. Floating in space. We’re literally suspended in space, effortlessly, by our own tissues. But we grow up not knowing that, and so use our bodies in perverse ways. We think we have to move ourselves, or we have to lift ourselves out of a chair or up stairs. Or that we even need to hold ourselves up just to do something as basic as sit or stand. The bizarre thing is that we ever believed that - how do you lift yourself or move yourself? You ARE yourself. You can’t separate one part of you off from everything else, to try to move or lift the rest of you. It all happens at once, all of you, all at the same time. You’re just like this lamp.