“Chance, when I saw you driving under the window with your head held high, with that terrible stiff-necked pride of the defeated which I know so well; I knew that your comeback had been a failure like mine.”

Alexandra Del Lago in Tennesse William’s “Sweet Bird of Youth”.

***

One of my new acquaintances in the 80’s was Dr David Garlick, a Professor in the Faulty of Medicine at the University of NSW in Sydney. He had a particular interest in exercise physiology, had come across Alexander’s Discovery and was astonished at the insights and relevance of his work.

In 1981, Garlick put together a symposium - Proprioception, Posture and Emotion - at the University of New South Wales. Alexander Technique teacher Dr Wilfred Barlow and Neuroscientist and advocate of Alexander’s discovery, T. D. M. Roberts, both attended and presented papers.

Dad announced his death to all of us, although we didn’t know it at the time.

It was at my sister’s wedding, and he gave the strangest speech. He talked about his life and where he should be buried. He apologised for the pains he had caused us all, but promised that life would always do something for you if you asked clearly enough.

My current series of Dailies is inspired by Megan Macedo’s “Be Yourself Community” 21-day writing challenge. 

Megan is maverick marketer with a leading edge message: people are more interested in you first, your product second. Particularly in the area of human potentiality and self-education.

Alexander’s 2nd & 3rd discovery are both dependent upon his 1st Discovery.

That’s why I write “Alexander’s Discovery” in a singular form.

FM’s 1st Discovery was that his Postural movements calibrated everything else. 

In 1982, Sydney did not have internet.

If you wanted to promote your work, it was:

- ads in newspapers
- handing out flyers
- snail-mailing folks

(or street lectures)

“The things that don’t exist are the most difficult to get rid of.”
F. M. Alexander

***

Not much exists as we think it does.

Not our mother, or lover or even the city we live in.

Mostly these are fabrications we make up in our minds, then project on to the person, place or situation around us. And our problems don’t arise from the person, place or situation as we believe they do - our problems arise from our fabrications.

I still projected so much longing onto Diane, my french fiancé who dumped me.

After the end of my engagement with Diane, I worked two jobs in Sydney to save the money and return to school, eventually getting back there in the winter of '79.

Back at school, I used to hide in the kitchen. 

“You can’t tell a person what to do because the thing you have to do is a sensation.”

F. Mattias Alexander

***

Alexander didn’t start by using his hands to communicate his discovery.

Initially, he tried to explain. Apparently - according to a scholarly bit of research by Ed Maisel - those early days had FM shouting at his students when they failed to follow his verbal instructions.

Finally – in total frustration – he took hold of a person’s head with his hands:

“I mean THIS!!!”