18 March

Some deaths hit you hard, this is one of those, for me. David was remarkable, a unique mind who discovered the most astonishing things about how humans work, and shared what he discovered with thousands in his extraordinary writing and workshops. I learned so much from him. About how gravity actually keeps us upright, the exact reverse to what we’re all brought up to think and feel. About how our bodies allow for complete, literally effortless freedom of support and movement, and that effort itself was the result of our misunderstanding of both gravity, and that our body is a single, coordinated system that we so often try to control. That control creates effort, which is completely unnecessary. He was a wonderfully patient and funny teacher, with a gift for understanding how to help people overcome years of misunderstandings and misconceptions. The truly intelligent are always funny in a unique way, and that was David. He was so giving of his time to others as well. I had a long conversation with him just over a year ago when he was already suffering from Parkinsons (I think it was Parkinsons). Life can be so fucking cruel, to strike down somebody who devoted a life to teaching people how to have wonderful ease and freedom in their bodies with a disease that removed both. He was worried that the work he’d done was still misunderstood, and I saw that in so many even who were supporters of what he did. I’ll be keeping my own desire to share what he discovered. He began as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, but his mind discovered the fundamental flaws in that body of work very quickly. He was never forgiven by many of the AT crowd, who like all social groups battle to this day for their own status, at the expense of understanding. RIP David. Like all those who actually see more of what this life is about, you’ll never be really gone for me. I’m always happy to share with others what he discovered, it’s life-changing and like all true knowledge, joyful and perpetually surprising.