Exiled Thoughts

Yesterday I learned a new song, "Die Gedanken Zindt Frei," (Our Thoughts Are Free) at a temple Chanukah gathering. It grew on me, and I always feel super cool whenever I learn any Yiddish. The woman who taught the children the song demonstrated the freedom of thought by highlighting the enclosure of the skull, going around to children, pretending to unzip their skulls and read their thoughts, then condemn what she found in there. I enjoyed her presentation, she proved once again that when someone's creative or discursive impulse veers towards bodily imagery depth and discovering are greatly enhanced. Discursive references to the body reunite mind and body, which far too easily wander apart. The rediscovery of the body is a rather hilarious thing, I've often felt surprised and relieved to find it still there, to rediscover the vestibular intimacy of the body itself and consciously appreciate its role in shielding, to some degree, one's autonomy from the various kinds of bloody power games people have played throughout history.

I was quietly free to think to myself that in fact our thoughts are not free, completely. There are thoughts which many dare not think, thoughts exiled beyond the edges of the domain of tolerable ideas. There are thoughts imprisoned in the realm of the unthinkable. Can you believe, there are thoughts a blogger might not even write on her blog! But unlike the heretics killed throughout history, these thoughts and ideas cannot and will not go away. They must be reckoned with.