We are whole beings. We know this somewhere in a part of ourselves that feels like memory. —Susan Griffin—
When we study biology, we learn that in every cell of our bodies we carry our whole genetic program, the complex set of chemical instructions for building us:
our skeleton, skin, hair, eyes, muscles, brain, genitals, guts. Every human being is born with a set of capacities and responses that are as much a part of him or her
as the capacity to grow fingernails or to heal cuts.
Yet deep in our language and culture is a habit of speaking about ourselves as though our intelligence, our feelings, and our will could be separated from the rest of us. We talk about “a body/mind split,” as though our body or our minds did not fully belong to us. And all cultures have the myth of a golden age when humans were fully integrated.
Much of “civilized” behavior is bad for us—we eat and breathe stuff that no self-respecting animal would tolerate. Our lives could make us ill: immobility, anxiety, and stress show up as ulcers, hypertension, skin rashes, heart disease, obesity. We need to learn to respect ourselves as animals, and not to deny that we have bodies. Our lives, like ourselves, are all of one piece, whether or not we understand.
My real golden age is now, Because it is the only time I have.