Is life a shoddy tailor?

A man being fitted for a suit complained that one of the shoulders wasn’t cut properly. The tailor suggested he slightly turn his body.

That improved it, but the back developed a bulge. Never mind said the tailor, just lean forward a bit.

This solved that, but the left trouser leg tended to rise. Keep your knee bent and it will look all right said the tailor.

The suit now fitted provided the man stood askew instead of upright, leant forward, and hobbled when he walked.

Passing him in the street a lady remarked to her companion how lucky it was for one with such disabilities to have found such a good tailor.

Some of us end up walking along a little like that man, somewhat lacking in grace or harmony, believing it is required through how our lives have tailored our own bodies.

The injuries and the injustices leave their own record in the tension that we carry around with us. If we move like that for long enough we don’t even notice it as unusual. It becomes who we are.

But we can change how we move almost as easily as we can have our clothes altered. It may require as little as adding a little more time.

Alexander Technique lessons will give you a better measure of yourself and have you walking about in style.

Anecdote from Alan Fletcher’s ‘The art of looking sideways’ 2001