HUMAN GRACE AND TENDERNESS

“Tenderness has an enormous amount to do with liberty.” - John Berger

In turn, human grace has an enormous amount to do with tenderness.  Our school, The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School has been known from its start as “TLC”.  That stands for The Lauterstein-Conway. “L” for Lauterstein, “C” for my business partner, John Conway and I jokingly say “T” is for “The”, our silent partner. But of course it is for “tender” along with loving and care.

Tender comes from the Old French meaning interestingly, “to stretch”. It also means “soft, easily injured.”  We feel tenderly toward things, animals, people with the consciousness that things in reality are delicate. We all live delicate lives. However strong we are, each of our lives is delicate, because of life’s complexity, its challenges, the power of our passions, and ultimately the experiences leading to death.

interestingly, tenderness toward self through yoga and the tender stretching of connective tissue by massage therapists may be a key to helping with chronic pain, even cancer!

Along this path stretching from birth to death we travel, and along the way we are granted the liberty and grace to give and receive tenderness.

Of course Otis Redding taught us to “Try a Little Tenderness.”

Here is the full youtube of John Berger speaking on tenderness and its enormous importance in human life - https://nfold.net/2015/06/tenderness-is-a-defiant-act-of-freedom-john-berger/ which begins with:

“It seems to me that one of the essential elements in tenderness is that it is a free act, a gratuitous act.  It has an enormous amount to do with liberty, with freedom, because one chooses to be tender.  And in a certain sense, in face of so often what is surrounding us, it is an almost defiant act of freedom.”

What is needed more now than tenderness?
What grace, what liberty and what freedom we choose when we open our hearts and minds to tenderness!