What's a Body to Do?

Do we ever look at another person’s body and wish it were our own? Probably. The tendency to compare is strong in us. Maybe we wish we were thinner, taller, shapelier, stronger, stunningly attractive, more limber, or younger. We might feel as though we lug our bodies out of bed and tug at them all day long with little awareness of all they do for us and absolutely zero gratitude for the marvel they are. After all, in our minds, they malfunction. They betray us. They gross us out. They embarrass us. And over time, any pleasure we found in them fades away like our receding hairlines. Bodies! We’ve all got them and we all struggle to know what to do with them.

Sure, there’s a lot we can change about our bodies. Hair style. Eye color. Weight. Muscle tone. Facial hair. Sags and wrinkles tucked away. Stomachs stapled. Non-functioning organs replaced with better performing ones. Conditions mitigated with medicine. Skin illustrated in ink and embedded with metal. Fake tans. Fake nails. Fake eyelashes. Fake… we could go on and on! Choosing to change aspects of our bodies is likely a direct reflection of how we feel about them and what we can express about ourselves through them. What’s the body we inhabit to do while it exists on this planet among others of its kind?

What indeed are we to do with our bodies? We can care for them as best we can… or we can neglect and abuse them. We can do random acts of kindness for others with them… or we can do only as we please. We can add ours to a cavorting crowd at an outdoor concert… or we can hunker down in our homes alone. We can give generous hugs to the elderly and careful hugs to children… or we can withhold the gift of our touch altogether. We can line ours up with others at a pep or political rally… or we can keep our allegiances private. We can operate machinery and manipulate materials… or we can play it safe parked on the sofa. What we do do with our bodies often reveals our values, our interests, our commitments, our dreams. When we give our bodies in service to something or someone, it is usually love behind and in it all. It’s truly remarkable what a body can do!

Perhaps we should pay a little more attention to where we go in our bodies, how we treat our bodies, what we create with our bodies, and who we understand ourselves to be in our bodies. They have a language all their own.