Spirit’s
Temple
“The
oddest, most exhilarating and exhausting thing was this: he never quit. The
music had no periods, no rests or endings; the poetry’s beautiful sentence
never ended; the line had no finish; the sculptured forms piled overhead, one
into another without surcease. Who could breathe, in a world where the rhythm
itself had no periods?”
Annie
Dillard (The Writing Life, p.97; Harper Perennial, 1989)
Annie
Dillard wrote this paragraph while watching Dave Rahm fly in the Bellingham Air
Show, Washington state, 1975. The plane was a Bucher Jungman, built in the 1930’s.
Rahm put it through every move it could make—spins, dips, twirls, loops,
spirals. Not a jet like the ones the Blue Angels fly, but an old German-built
biplane with an open cockpit, Rahm took it to the brink of its capacity while
the crowd below held its collective breath. The show seemed to go on forever. As
Dillard wrote above, “who could breathe in a world where rhythm itself had
no periods.”
Who
indeed? And yet, we do. I recently listened to a physician speak about rest and
memory—not just in elderly people but in high school and college students. I
remember watching my roommates in college troupe down to the dorm’s living room
with fifty or so others to pull an “all-nighter” study session for final exams.
According to current research, that is the worst possible thing to do. Memory is aided
by sleep, not by cramming. Apparently, sleep is when our brains organize and
incorporate information. To stay up all night studying and then go to an exam
tired and wired, (as I remember a great deal of coffee was consumed at those
study sessions) is a recipe for disaster.
The
number one complaint I hear from young people (and everyone is young to me!) is
that they are tired. Somehow, they see this chronic fatigue as normal and a
natural result of living in the age of technology. It’s not. It’s a result of trying
to cram too much into one day, every day. It’s a result of having a sympathetic
nervous system that is, like Dave Rahm’s biplane, constantly pushed to the
limit, pumping out adrenalin and cortisol in an attempt to keep us going. There
is such a plethora of stress hormones circulating in our bodies that we couldn’t
sleep if we wanted to.
You
have heard the adage, “it’s the space between the notes that makes the music.” It’s
the period at the end of a sentence that makes it readable, and it’s the rest
for our bodies that makes them function properly. There is no rhythm without
the pause; there is only beating and banging. There are many things we can live
without—coffee, alcohol, risky behavior, drugs, dessert—but sleep is not one of
them. Sleep is essential to health. And here’s another: breath. Learning to
breathe deeply is one of the most important things we can do for our health.
The
last time I was in Gulf Shores, the Blue Angels were training just off the beach.
I sat on the sand for a long time watching them. I find their synchronized twirls
and loops thrilling. But they also have to land those planes, get out, go home and
rest. They are after all, human beings. And so are we. Be kind to your body and
it will serve you for a long, long time. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
6:19, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is
in you, whom you have from God…” It’s time we gave thanks in, and for, this
temple.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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