The Back

The back is the part of you that you never see. Never. Not even in the mirror — there you only see a reflection, reversed, filtered through glass. Your own back remains hidden from you your entire life. And yet it carries you. Every second. Upright, in motion, in sleep, in love, at work, in the fight. It is the quiet constant that keeps your entire body in form.

It is no coincidence that language weaves the back so deeply into life. You have backbone — or you don't. You get someone's backing — or you stand alone. You turn your back on someone — or they turn theirs on you. You carry a burden on your back — or someone lifts it from you. The back is not only anatomy, but an image for everything that supports us from behind, that we do not see, that carries us without our noticing.