In a word - NO.

FM's work does not embrace every nuance of modern life - the frenetic pace, the new information, the constant disruptions, the shifting behavioural standards.

And yet…

Sometimes in life, it is time to change. Are you at that point?

And you don't. You spin your hamster wheel around and around, knowing you are getting nowhere - even though you are trying hard. Frustrating.

FM pinned down 3 reasons for that.

1. Laziness.

OK, what's a Sonzai no Mondai?

It bad Japanese for an existential crisis. Whenever I ask in class:

I am waking up to the fact that my life - which FELT so solid - is a myth I carry around in my head.

It's my very own fairytale.

It started with yesterday's homily to FM's aphorism:

"The things that don't exist are the most difficult to get rid of."

The subject of this email was one of FM's aphorisms. What does it mean?

Well, our world is full of things that don't exist. You for a start.

But I won't go there, not today. Instead of looking for you, let's look for Seattle.

My run was at 5 am this morning.

At this hour in Japan, it is dark. And that is when I saw them…

Swinging and bobbing lights in the distance, like a mysterious UFO in the dark.

As I approached, I discovered it was old Japanese men and woman. With lights on their head.

My life is a failure. And it continues to be - I am glad of it.

Your life is a failure too, if you have achieved anything worthwhile.

How does that work?

Scientists out there have probably got my drift. Edison puts it differently. About his experience of trying to invent the light bulb, he said:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Yes, maybe we haven't failed. Maybe every day we find SOMETHING that won't work, and every day - if we are smart - we learn from that.

"It's not that I'm not joyful." The future Zen mater Tung-shan said to his teacher, after his inner eye opened. "But it's as though I have grasped a pearl in a pile of shit."

***

I'm weird, no question about that.

Weird, because I have not lived my life according to "normal". I didn't go to university; I didn't even go to school in my last years. In Japan, they would have called me a "hikikomori" and tolerated my behaviour.

In Australia, I just had to be sneaky.

I would get dressed, go down and have breakfast, say:

"Bye! BYE!"

Johnny loves soccer, and you win by getting the ball under the net!

It takes effort, tension. Yesterday I wrote about people who add tension to make "good upright posture."

Michael Tilly, working at the Lyric Theatre in Illinois, had this to say:

***

I have to say I don't necessarily agree with this. Muscles work by tensing. What we need is eutony, or appropriate tension and span. In my experience with others and myself, tension in a "part" is sometimes due to flaccidity of other "parts" which need to be contributing to the "work" of balance.

You are not designed to spend a good part of your day looking down at your tummy.

And yet, I met a man who did mostly that.

I was working backstage at a theatre in London in the late 70s - yes, THAT long ago - when I met him: his posture was so rounded that he looked like his head was consuming his body for breakfast.

When I told him I was in London to do the 3-year training as an Alexscovery Teacher, he got curious.

"3 years?" he remarked in a strong Cornish accent. "Maybe you can help with my stomach?"

"What's wrong with it?"