38. Breathe
... being a few thoughts on the air that we breathe, where it might have come from, where it might go, and what we do with it.
We are told that good things happen when we concentrate on our breathing. It helps us to calm down when we are anxious, when we are angry, when we are overwhelmed. When we are naturally calm and relaxed, and when we are asleep, our breathing becomes deeper, and more regular. Our thoughts settle, and problems seem to resolve themselves in the background, in our subconscious minds, whist we are not looking.
Sometimes when I am not calm, when I am frustrated, angry or anxious, I forget to think about my breathing. I might shout, or stamp about, pace the room, swear, or try and resolve the problem too quickly and clumsily, making everything worse. I have even been known, under extreme duress to bang my head against the table or bite the back of my hand. None of it really does any good. Not for more than a few seconds anyway. At risk of sounding like a new age spiritual healer, concentrating on one’s breathing can bring a more lasting respite from difficult emotions.
The spirituality of breathing is plain to see when you think about it. It is breath that sustains us, and all the living creatures on the surface of the Earth1, and somehow, (if I remember my school biology lessons correctly) all the plants exist in some sort symbiosis with us, purifying our spent breath and creating the fresh air that we need to keep on breathing. The hippies were right- we need trees to survive! Thinking about that gives my quite a profound buzz. I can see my place in a magnificent scheme of things. The music of J.S Bach affects me in a similar way, although it expresses the thought slightly differently, being created in the eighteenth in a society which strongly believed in an ordered universe with God surrounded by his angels at the centre of it.
Music is good for breathing, it creates rhythms in our minds, rhythms that affect our whole bodies. We cant help but tap our feet, nod our heads, or even dance. You can’t dance properly and hold on to stressful thoughts and anxieties. That is the beauty of music. All music from Vivaldi to the Velvet Underground, from Bach to the Backstreet Boys. Feel free to add your favourite wide range of taste in music phrase at this point.
Speaking of J.S. Bach, it is a mathematical certainty that every breath you take will contain a few molecules that he once breathed. Thats even after taking into account the circulation of air around the globe, the amount of breaths he would have taken in his lifetime, and the amount of molecules that he would have breathed, even taking into account that he would have breathed a fair proportion of those molecules multiple times.
This often quoted fact is examined extensively in brilliant science based book called “Caesar’s Last Breath” by Sam Kean. Kean is one of those writers who makes science seem immediately interesting and accessible. the poem below owes a great deal to that book. I read it shortly after my parents had died, leaving me orphaned at the tender age of fifty five. (You are always at a tender age when you become an orphan.) Recognising that that my Dad would have enjoyed it, and being unable to share it with him, brought a melancholy feeling. Focusing on my breath (which couldn’t be avoided as I read the book) helped with that.
If this poem was a piece of music, it would have a slightly melancholy feel to it. When I perform it, I like to read very slowly to get the full full effect. If I can breathe with it, and manage to somehow get the audience to join in with the breathing, all the better. Breathing focuses the mind.
I shall really have to read Caesar’s Last Breath again. It finishes with the image of the first spaceship to colonise another planet, taking with it a quantity of breathable air, which would become part of the atmosphere of the new world, introducing molecules of air once breathed by Caesar, (and J.S.Bach, and Lemmy out of Motörhead, my Dad, my Mother… and you… and me). That really tunes me in to my place in creation, in time and space and whatever other dimensions we might inhabit.
Take a breath, and have a read2.
Breathe
Breathe in Take your time Nice and slowly Savour the breath as it fills your lungs Trillions upon trillions of molecules of air Sextillions Actually Breathe out Carefully With measured breath And out they flow An unimaginably huge amount of tiny, tiny particles You have harvested their oxygen But they will be recharged and recycled That's the way of things You are returning your empties to the dairy of Earth's atmosphere where they will be filled with goodness again. ready to be passed on to the lungs of others over the expanse of years ahead to future generations of people just like you Inhale. Easy now and consider what the mathematicians say, backed up by the scientists and reported from time to time in magazines and Internet articles. "It is an irrefutable fact," they claim “that some of those recycled molecules that you take in with every breath once passed through the lungs of... Jesus Christ or Socrates or Leonardo da Vinci In fact all three and more besides" Those boffins they always pick noble people for examples and so should you but that doesn't necessarily exclude your mother. Or mine. Allow the wisdom of the ages to fill your chest invigorate the blood in your heart and circulate throughout your being Exhale Slow and long And as you do modify the flow of air that leaves your mouth, using your vocal cords using your lips and tongue: You are playing music composed with the breath of the great and the good of our ancestors of everything that ever lived enjoy the thrill of playing your instrument Creating your own libretto Go with the flow Choose your words well Take your inspiration from your respiration Breathe
I’m sure that fishes have some similar reciprocal agreement with seaweed and all the stuff that sprouts up at the bottom of oceans and rivers
The poem sprang from a prompt given at a workshop led by the excellent South Yorkshire musician and poet, Ray Hearne, who often inspires others to create interesting stuff. The prompt was given at the end of a session in order that participants could go away and work on a poem to be shared the following week.
I recall that it was the sort of prompt that suggests a short list of words to be included, but I cant remember what the words were, just that many of the other participants had chosen to include the word “cicada”, which I believe is the name for the insect family that includes grasshoppers and crickets. I had either missed that part of the prompt or chosen to ignore it and erased it from my memory. As cicadas (cicadae?) came up in poem after poem read by the rest of the group I felt slightly awkward.
I imagine that breath must have been one of the words in the prompt - but that is about all I can remember of it.
Sorry Ray.
'Appen not hearing about cicadas was advantageous. If you've ever been to Costa Rica or anywhere where their umpteen yearly hatching transpires, you'll think jesus, why hast thou sent locusts to crawl in mine orifices? It's like trying to get rid of cock roaches. I actually did a girlie freak when one I thought was dead flew in my face. It was dead pretty soon after...or one that looked just like it.
I have probs breathing anyway, btw, never mind that, it sort of underlines why I enjoyed your article and poem. I was actually able to back off for a moment. Heh, one thing that used to stop me breathing deep, was when the yoga instructor asked it, but someone in our midst caused us to hold our breath. Mind you, with my gut they were lucky all that bending over didn't get them back. Speaking of which, can we also smell cave men's farts? Are we drinking crocodile tears? Well, we are all supposed to be one cosmos. That means you, me, Taylor Swift and Hitler are all in the same boat. Bring on the white water and thanks for some great literature, including the 60 odd geezer. (thumbs up emojo)
Breathing is an interesting though important subject to look at and very much neglected. Those people I come across at work with awful Breathing problems exacerbated by panic really benefit from Breathing exercises 'Breathe from your diaphragm' etc ,although this is often accompanied by some colourful expletives from said patients.
I have often reflected on Breathing the same air as ,not historical person especially [though that's giving me something to consider ] but people in general some less savoury than others,