About two weeks ago, my buddy Jack (my business partner’s
son) created an anatomy book. It’s
not too surprising to us how much this four year old knows about the body. He has grown up at The Pilates Studio
after all, and we are body people.
Seriously, Jack started Planking before it was an internet sensation, but this anatomy book has astounded us. This anatomy book is the kind of artifact that his mom will keep
forever. It’s both a work of art and a depiction of this young one’s perception
of the body. I was surprised by
the accuracy of the drawings, and have spent the last two weeks thinking how
did he know that? And then I’ve
been wondering, how can Jack’s perception of the body inform connections in my
own?
For instance in this picture of Jack’s hand:
How did Jack know how many bones were in each finger and
even more how did he understand what the joints of the hand look like? Clearly Jack hadn’t taken an anatomy
course, which is where I remember learning about such things. When Laurie asked Jack how he knew how
many bones were in his fingers he rolled his eyes the way only a four and a
half year old can and said, “Mom, one, two three!” as he bent his fingers at
the knuckles and pointed to each bone.
How could Laurie not know
that there were three bones in each finger, “DUH,” was certainly implied.
What can we learn from this? What if we just observed our bodies? What if we watched them like a four
year old watches his body? Would
we know more profound things than those we learned in biology class?
Here is Jack’s picture of the brain complete with brainstem:
Is our brain just a bunch of squiggles? When I think about what I know about
the brain and all of its connections, I think Jack’s drawing has some
conceptual accuracy. I imagine
that the lines swirling around in this depiction of the brain are all of the
electrical connections in the brain.
Synapses firing and sending signals…I wonder if Jack has combined what
he sees and what he feels. Without
the corruption of knowledge can Jack feel the messages being passed in his
body? Could we if we tried?
And finally what can we learn from Jack’s picture of the
Ribcage
If we think that size is a depiction of importance. Jack’s intuition shows how important he
thinks the ribcage is. Jack has a
huge heart, and I can imagine that he feels the world more than he thinks about
the world. The ribcage must be protecting something important…This, of course,
might be reading too much into a giant picture of the ribcage created by a four
year old, but this is how my brain works.
Looking at the body is one of my very favorite things, but even more winding my way through someone else’s mind wondering how they see the body is what makes me a teacher. The perception we have of our bodies informs the perception of our movement, and stepping out of our own perception into that of someone else’s is the best way to expand our thoughts and understand those around us.
Looking at the body is one of my very favorite things, but even more winding my way through someone else’s mind wondering how they see the body is what makes me a teacher. The perception we have of our bodies informs the perception of our movement, and stepping out of our own perception into that of someone else’s is the best way to expand our thoughts and understand those around us.
Katrina Hawley C.M.A PMA-CPT
Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio
You may have noticed that This blogpost is part I...Next week, to continue our "Perception and Pilates" series, I shall wind my way through the paintings of our very own Jennifer Sussman. Her series is entitled invented body systems, and well I can't wait to let the connections flow.
