“Like A Globe in the Classroom” Part 2
- marketingc8
- 9 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In September of 1988, the Massage Therapy Journal published an extensive interview with Anatomy in Clay® Learning System founder Jon Zahourek. The interview itself was conducted five months earlier, in Austin.
This is Part 2 of key excerpts from that conversation.
“I Am Thunderstruck”
“I am thunderstruck that people would question why I would want to know anatomy. That brings me right back to our beginning—know thyself. The divorce of self and “knowledge” happens immediately and completely; it’s surgically done when we’re five years old. Education has taken the route of knowledge of things other than the self. But self-knowledge has never been so possible that I know of.”
Start with Art
“As an artist, you really want to touch the truth of the universe with your work and that’s why an artist’s viewpoint is a good place to come from. I spoke to the Rolf Institute about this, about how there is a way to approach anatomy aside from the practicalities. I don’t ever necessarily want to approach anyone’s learning it for practical reasons because it’s too big for that and it’s too limiting at ‘Ah, yes, I can use this here and that there.’ What I was trying to show them is an elliptical path to the knowledge that each one of them would have their own motives, their own reasons. And those are more important than any professional expectations that you can graft onto it.”
The Fears We Set Up
“…I love studying my old notions of what an artist should know—I had all those. I had all the benefits and disadvantages that come with those stylized preparations and that’s why I recognize the pitfalls when a body worker says, ‘Well, I’m right-brained and I have a hard time with this’ and ‘I like that because I’m just that kind of person.’ Well, there’s no such animal. These categories exist only in the sense of fears that we set up and indulge because they give us the freedom to be irresponsible. They enable us. These right-brain/left-brain categories are like drunks, and these social roles are the enablers, the drunks’ families who say, ‘We love, you. You’re not perfect. Don’t worry.’ And so you have all these drunks, each one taking a one-side path out of anxiety.”
A Breathtaking Kind of Delusion
“Disciplines are what make you free. I’m a draughtsman who counts on great freedom. I draw faster than most people can write their names. I love that freedom. It’s pell-mell, dangerous and risky, and I love it. I couldn’t do it if I hadn’t drawn a billion slow drawings. In art, so often people are taught that anatomy will somehow diminish their creativity. Dancers are taught that and even some bodyworkers are taught that. I’ve heard them say this. It’s a breathtaking kind of delusion. You hear the drunk careening with that kind of thing? That’s because everyone’s role are so interwoven with those kinds of enablements giving us roles and giving us excuses.”
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