Body and Soul

Anonymous While bodies allow us to engage with the world during our time here on earth, they can also hinder us. With our daily hikes around cities, up mountains, and through busy streets, my body is starting to feel it. My knees, after several dance injuries, are not as young as they used to be and have been aching after these long walks. Despite this earthly pain of the body, I know that the sights we have to see are worth all the aching knees and sore feet we'll experience. I am more than just a body; I am a soul as well. While today my body was begging me "Don't go out! Stay in your hotel room and take a nap!", my soul, my sense of reason, insisted that the view would be worth it. And, as the author of 4 Maccabees suggested, reason is superior to the passions. When we reached the pinnacle of the Acropolis in Rhodes and observed the sun setting over the Mediterranean, my soul was delighted. This experience was worth ever step of the walk.
Despite my body's protests, I feel as if both my body and my soul have been improved by this trip. My body has appreciated not only the delicious food of Greece but also the daily exercise. My soul, which houses the reasonable part of my body, has been influenced in a much more significant way. Not only have we been learning more each day in class, but we have also been introduced to an entirely different culture with its own history. Just being surrounded by the rich history of Greece has made me a better person; it has enriched my very soul.