Alexander Technique Oasis
Alexander Technique teachers are particularly aware of the degree to which human communication is reduced to computers, tablets, and cell phones. Face to face interaction, not to mention touch, is becoming more infrequent. We are living in a non-tactile world. Electronics, and various gadgets dominate. Even book stores and record stores are becoming extinct.
My friend, Sara Krieger writes:
“It occurred to me… that we are, in essence, losing the sense of being human and tactile in our daily lives.
There is something that I know that many people miss about not being able to go through a record bin- or a CD bin- and look at the new releases, read the liner notes to find out who actually made the music we listen to and look around to see what someone else might be listening to. Not only is the human experience of interplay and exchange lost, but the tactile choosing of items- Flipping through the categories, picking up the album, turning it in your hands, looking next to you to see what someone else might be checking out. And in the days of actual albums, getting that smell of cardboard and vinyl…. Not to mention the interexchange between patron and knowledgable salesperson.
Oh, and the bookstores…. I go through Barnes and Noble now (ironically, a corporate monolith I’ve become sentimental over) and wonder how long it will be before they do the obsolete mambo… And you can pick up a book, touch it, feel it, admire the cover art, flip through it’s pages, pore over it’s contents, read entire chapters if you choose and actually connect to the process with your physical being…”
There is another area in which we are not “tactile and human”; The world of conventional health care. Doctors have less tactile connections with their patients, though they stick, prod, take pictures, and draw blood. Speed, efficiency, and routine, trumps the human element.
Alexander Technique teachers, on the other hand, connect, communicate, touch, and educate. At Alexander Technique lessons, the student gets 45 minutes of “face time.”
In a cold, dry, impersonal world, the Alexander Technique is an oasis.
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
Image courtesy of Worradmu/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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