“Compare the body without life and the body with life. Meditate on this. See how helpless a dead person is, then contrast it with a living person. You should feel a flow of joy because you are alive. Your body will feel full of life. That is what you must give from the stage.  Your life. No Less. That is art: to give all you have. And what have you? Your life-nothing more. And to give life means to feel life throughout your whole being.”

Michael Chekhov

So often we talk about the feelings in our heart.

I heart you. Trite but true?

Such a fun and sweet, cliche.

I “heart” New York, My Dog and whatever other sentimentalities that fit on the chest. And how do you respond when you see “I Heart…” Are you curious to know what or who is the object of such hearting? What does your body do when you see it? Where in your body does it go?

Now, of the multitude of dreaded cliches that evoke stereotypical images of underlying power archetypes, this “I heart” invitation for us to associate our feelings with our body–or at least a part of the whole-is more helpful than many. Right?  Or Not?

I have to say honestly that publishing this whole quote scared me to death. And I guess it scared my computer too as the very section I doubted whether to include–yeah…the see dead people part…disappeared and the quote jumbled itself mysteriously.  Did I really want to revisit the images of my husband lying dead cold on a gurney in Arkansas? No, been there, done that. Could I put forward the depth of Michael Chekhov’s meaning without that part? No, not really. Like most things in life, context is all. And the contrast with context keeps us on the edge of our seat, on our toes, poised for action.

Gee what a nice series of sayings I just wrote. All based on bodily images, metaphors for mental and emotional conditions with actions done by the body. The Whole body. Ones that can’t be done by a lifeless corpse. All the scientific and quantum mechanic, medical studies are clearly showing we are holographic beings with our thoughts, feelings, etc in every part. To give yourself, you must train every cell of your being with special sensitizing means. You must first want to do that. To feel the vitality only a living form can experience.

I will talk more about Mr. C’s meaning of the word You and Your life and what to give You as a whole being could mean, and what it definitely does not mean.

Do contemplate Mr. C’s statement and I will write more after I am back in Texas. Gotta get on the road.