In the last few years, I’ve noticed a pattern when I see photos of myself in front of an audience. I am invariably tilting one foot forward as I talk, as in the attached photo from Andrew Crane. Yet I have no awareness of doing it. Is this some strange adaptation to one leg being shorter than the other? A nervous tick? It’s getting to the point where I’m desperate to catch myself doing it, just so I can understand what ‘it’ is. But it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I am thinking with my feet:
Not with my hand alone I write:
My foot wants to participate.
Firm and free and bold, my feet
Run across the field – and sheet.
– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Prelude in Rhymes: 52
‘Run across the … sheet’ reminded me of dogs running in their dreams. Also the stance of one foot forward is a typical one of asserting authority.
Ah but is raising the toe of one foot something else entirely?
Being tentatively authoritative? 🙂
yes! 🙂