Body and Soul

Anonymous

Pride and Prejudice, Mister Darcy-"You have bewitched me body and soul"

This is the first thing that came to my mind for the blog topic today. I immediately remembered the line from Darcy and as I continued to run my mind for what to write I realized that I was trying to take the topic in two pieces. Body and soul--one and two, meaning two separate things. Due to the discussion of philosophy and class lectures the separateness is even more defined. And I feel the two are somewhat set against each other, but in the quote they are combined. For Darcy the condition is so great that it captures both. The two become one, no longer separated but rather compounded to be even greater. Though my initial reaction to our topic may be on Kiera Knightley chick flick, I think it brings additional perspective to the phrase that is important. The combination of two can be greater than the division.

But to show I am made of more than chick flicks and girly romance, I will share with you my second thought as I contemplated this category. Again it was a quote: "Free the body and the soul may flourish".

I feel that this really epitomizes some of the lecture points on body and soul. Clearly a flourishing soul is what the goal must be, no doubt from this quote it is the greater of the two. At the same time the body is the weight, the anchoring. It seems we must let the body go, to truly reach greatness. We must not be held back physically nor mentally and therefore must free ourselves of the body. However this makes me wonder, what is the body without the soul? Just dead weight? For some reason that saddens me that the body may be nothing more, even if it is just my irrational emotions telling me so.

And to round out with three as the spiritual, holy number, my final thoughts on this topic came to me while of course sitting in the cafe tonight with good atmosphere and conversation. As we are sitting there a song that I really love and always stops me and begs me to listen, Warwick Avenue starts to play. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhZ5-L9znt8). It is a song that clams and stills my body; the sounds grabbing my soul. The sounds are stiking and beautiful. I particularly love the artist's voice which is pure and literally soulful. I am in no way musical, but I greatly appreciate the art. Soulful voices always catch me and the enjoyment gets me "body and soul" (no pun intended). This experience go me thinking especially as others commented on the her nice voice, thatI agree the soul is powerful but I think the soul needs the body to express itself. Yes, we cannot not let the body hold us back, but we must learn to enjoy the soul and its art and beauty through the body. Let the body be a vessel for the art of the free soul. So finally I leave you with---"Art is the journey of a free soul"-Alev Oguz

Body and Soul

Anonymous

With all of the walking we have done during this trip, my body has not had much time to rest. In Athens we walked everywhere, and we hiked up mountains to see Delphi and Mistras. My body hasn’t really had the chance to rest in Rhodes either. Whether walking down the beach, through the town, or spending a long day visiting another nearby island, the past few days have been just as busy as the past two weeks.

Despite the hardship on my body, my soul is flourishing with this experience. I am learning so much and gaining so many life experiences in this short amount of time that what I think of as my soul is expanding exponentially. The experiences and learning I have done on this trip are working to better define my soul and the interactions I have had with my travel-mates and the people I have met while in Greece have nourished my soul so that it can grow larger and healthier than before this experience.

Body and Soul

Anonymous

I have always believed that the soul and the body are two separate things. Personally, my soul feels much taller than my average height of 5'6".

I hate to use the example of falling again, but it's the first thing that comes to mind. The morning after the really rainy day that I fell down several times, my body hurt. I had several bruises and was generally kind of achy. But my soul was excited and feeling adventurous, so I didn't pay any attention to the torments of my body.

Even though the body and the soul are two separate things in my mind, I think the body can emanate the beauty of the soul. Before college, I took 13 years of dance classes. I never felt my body more connected with my soul than when I danced. Whether I was upset or the happiest I'd ever been, I could use movement to express that. There would be times when I'd be dancing so much my body would just be exhausted, but the need for my soul to express itself overpowered that exhaustion.

Today in class we discussed how the faithful would trust that their souls would stay pure even through torture and terrible things happening to their physical selves. Our bodies set limitations on our soul, even if our soul just wants to move beyond them. My soul is awake all the time, but my body requires about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. This fact has been slightly unfortunate while traveling. If my body would allow it, I would stay awake 24/7 just to experience all the amazing things this country has to offer. :)