Our most profound University
I spent nearly a day a week for a year in an anatomy lab as an applied medical science student.
I loved the study of human anatomy. As a young student, not quite cracking twenty years of age, I was awestruck by the realisation of many things.
Whatever animates this human vessel to life is not found in our flesh. The flesh and bone are merely the transit features. I could not imagine after spending a year hands deep in human anatomy that life was extinguished after the body stopped.
That the more we know, the less we know. The mystery is eternally deeper, higher…like quicksilver…delightfully playful in its purity of avoiding capture.
And awe, reverence for, biology, nature, life…is how we need to approach everything. Life is not a commodity there for our use, our extraction, our exploitation, our ridicule.
To be humbled every single day by the exquisite gorgeousness that we are.
Instead, we fight with our bodies. We subject our bodies to stresses, like food lacking any aliveness, to too little sleep. To battles of intense dislike that result in us doing horrid things to our bodies.
At times our instruments of expression are capable of incredible things. Like running ultramarathons. Mastering fine motor skills. Dancing with grace and precision after years of training.
At our times we are fragile. Needing to be wrapped in warm blankets, fed nourishing food, held tightly.
I wonder how we might teach the young about our temple. This home we occupy for the duration of our lives. Perhaps if we do this we might also know the temples occupied by all life, and treat them with due respect.
Yesterday I was snorkelling in the bay around Broken Head. Multiple fish, a blue groper, stingrays…
Awe!
Awe!
…our most profound University is our physical home and the ground we walk over every day.
Photo taken June 20th 2021