Touch - Aidan Travis

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Touch is all throughout religion, in hinduism, the sacred Murti that must be rubbed with ghee or honey and in catholicism, the parishioners give peace to one another through touching of the hands or hugging. I have grown up catholic and I went to church almost every Sunday from when I was very small and up until I went to boarding school my sophomore year of high school. Personally, the giving of peace was one of my favorite times of mass since it meant that I could try and out squeeze the grip of my brother and my dad. I was an antsy kid, sitting still for 45 minutes to an hour wasn’t my highlight of the week. But, standing up and saying “peace be with you” to my family and to strangers, it gave me something to look forward to. 
Glucklich speaks of ‘Sacred Pain’ in her book and I found it very intriguing. Early on he explains the difference between reductive and non reductive theories behind sacred pain. A non reductive theory explains the reasoning behind the pain, but not the symbolism behind it. A reductive approach tries to explain the symbolism of things such as ‘death in pain’ 

File:Virabhadrasana II - Warrior II Pose.jpg - Wikimedia Commons I enjoy yoga, and sometimes it can be quite uncomfortable, one could even say painful. I know that I can let go anytime I want and just stop the practice and turn off the instructional video, but there is some part of me that knows this pain is something that I need, that if I let this pain control me, then I won’t feel accomplished, mentally relaxed, and physically looser when I am done. On the surface, I understand why I feel the pain, my muscles are tight and they are stretching out, or I am using strength to hold myself in a certain position. So in a sense, the pain is obviously going to happen, but, what I will now look to find, is the reductive answer, what does this pain symbolize for me? What am I feeling because of this pain? 

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