''Body is our first environment,'' writes Andrea
Olsen. ''It is the medium through which we know the
earth.'' In a remarkable integration of environmental
science, biology, meditation, and creative expression,
Olsen, a dancer who teaches in the environmental studies
program at Middlebury College, offers a guide to a
holistic understanding of person and place. Part
workbook, part exploration, Body and Earth considers the
question of how we can best, most responsibly inhabit
both our bodies and our planet. Olsen displays an easy
command of fields as diverse as geology, biochemistry,
ecology, and anatomy as she explores the ways in which
our bodies are derived from and connected to the natural
world. But Body and Earth is not just a lesson, it is
also an investigation. Arranged as a 31-day program, the
book offers not only a wealth of scientific information,
but also exercises for both exploring the body and
connecting with place; illustrations and works of art
that illuminate each chapter's themes; and Olsen's own
meditations and reflections, connecting the topics to
her personal history and experience. Olsen insists that
neither body nor landscape are separate from our
fundamental selves, but in a culture which views the
body as a mechanism to be trained and the landscape as a
resource to be exploited, we need to learn to see again
their fundamental wholeness and interconnection. Through
hard data, reflection, exercises, and inspiration, Body
and Earth offers a guide to responsible stewardship of
both our planet and our persons. |
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