Silk Road - Part 6: My Body

This is part 6 in a series of blog articles about my new CD, Silk Road, which will be released in just 5 days on December 4th!   Here’s a really interesting adventure that we all share in common, each in our own way …

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Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,  Part 4 and Part 5.

This is a song about my body.  But I’m not so sure it’s about me.  Because me, and my body… well, you see, we’re a bit of a mystery.

We spend our lives trying to figure out our bodies – physically, on the one hand, spiritually, on the other… and we try to get all the shades in between.  This body …  It’s very hard to define.

This song, too, is quite hard to describe.  My Body is not a theatre song.  It’s not a “retro-techno” pop song.  It’s not a classical song.  It’s not a comedy song.  It’s not a 21st century pop song.  It’s not a spiritual song.  It’s not even an inspirational song.  It’s not a send-up, either.

That’s because it’s all of these things. My Body is a complex piece with lots of parts and functions –- kind of like my body.

The song pokes fun at my body.  It takes my body seriously.  It laughs wholeheartedly at its flaws.  It celebrates its wonders, its abilities, and it complains bitterly of its ironies and incomprehensibilities.  But it doesn’t much consider me.

My Body is more about life in my body… living in my body … living beyond my body … living in spite of my body … living in this paradox… living here and now on Planet Earth …

I find it all rather amusing and yet confusing too.  Well, you see, it’s all a bit of a mystery.  Me and my body.

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My Body
Music and Lyrics
by
Peter Link
I am not my body
My body is not me
I mean to live beyond it
In some capacity
I believe I’ve lived before it
Though memory fails
I cannot ignore it
Everything else
Pales in comparison

This wondrous invention
Of flesh and bone technology
Only belongs to me
Temporarily

I know not where it came from
I know not how it works
I took no part in its conception
Its genius or its quirks
It carries on in sleep
Requiring little of me
It is mine to keep
And cost me nothing

Yes it is the house of my consciousness
For perhaps a hundred years
It manufactures babies
And laughter and tears

It’s a miracle of invention
In its breath
In its sight
In its tubes
In its muscle
In its appetite

In its pleasure
In its pain
In its taste
And its touch
In its foot
In its hand
In its amazing ability
To discern Tchaikovski
From Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band
    
I am not my body
My body is not me
But me and my body
We basically agree
To live, for a time,
On this spec in space
This embrace of mind and matter
This interface
Through this vast universe of illusion
And conjecture we go
For reasons
That I’ll probably never know

Well we might as well make the best of it.
So let’s dance!
Yeah let us dance
We got to dance now
Work yo’ body
Work yo’ body
Work yo’ body
Let us dance

I am not my body
No my body is not me
But I’m amazed
By both its function
Oh and yes
Its mystery
But I go about my business
Mostly unaware
I sit in thought
I climb the stair

So little do I think ahead
And tell it what to do
It seems to work just fine
From its matter-mind

Every blink
Every step
Every breath
Every heartbeat
Every quick reaction
Every wild attraction

I am not my body
No my body is not me
It bears no real resemblance
To my true being

But hey, let’s make the best of it!
And let’s dance!!!

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