Thursday, March 18, 2010

Carry my head

Today I went to visit my friend Lynne. We sat outside in the glorious sunshine, drinking tea and catching up. The winter seemed especially long and brutal, even more so for Lynne who in the past year has had a loss too deep to comprehend. Yet despite her own pain, Lynne offered to do Reiki and massage on me to heal the injury I have from shoveling six feet of snow in the past few weeks.

Lynne held the weight of my head in her hands and I felt the stress drain out of my head, neck, and shoulders. I’ve never personally weighed my head and I suppose it’s difficult to get an accurate measurement of its weight without detaching it from the body. (And I fear it would be difficult to reattach a head that has been severed from the body.) However, I’ve heard that an adult human head weighs about 10 pounds. Imagine walking around with a 10 pound bowling ball attached to your neck and you’ll know what it feels like to have a head. You probably already know what it’s like to have a head—you don’t need me to describe it to you.

It was such a relief to have Lynne support the weight of my head that I got to thinking—what if I could hire someone to carry my head for me? I would instantly be 10 pounds lighter. My neck and shoulder pains probably would go away. I could sleep comfortably. It might be a bit cumbersome to have my head-carrying assistant with me all the time but I think I could get used to it.

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