Design for action

As Halloween approaches, skeletons start showing up all around my neighborhood: sitting on a porch swing, standing in the window, and popping out of the ground. 

As someone who is osteophilic — loves bones — I delight in their sudden appearance. For me, they’re anything but spooky. Rather than representing death, they stand for life. Once we have grown up, the cells that make up our skeleton continually regenerate, replacing approximately ten percent of old bone with new every year. 

These annual displays remind me of our shared legacy, this marvelous architecture that makes easy, efficient action possible. By way of your muscles, the human brain animates your elegant bony framework, turning intention into action. 

How we move through life depends on how well we understand our internal structure and its design for action — not conceptually, but in how we perceive ourselves from the inside out. Coordination is not a given; it is entirely learnable. You can improve how you move — and feel — regardless of your athletic ability, physical aptitude, or age.