In the great documentary The Last Dance about basketball legend Michael Jordan and The Chicago Bulls, there‘s a moment when we see Michael Jordan driving away in a red sports car. The licence plate reads „AIR“. „Air“ or „His Airness“ were synonyms for Michael Jordan, relating to his game where at times he seemed to be airborne, in the air as if he could fly.
The only strategy the fiercest opposing team to the Chicago Bulls, the Detroit Pistons, came up with in order to have a chance of winning the game was to literally keep Michael Jordan down. Once he was in the air, all you could do was look up, watch him fly and shoot the ball.
Fascinated by watching Michael Jordan play, I wondered what it must feel like to jump into the air this high without fear of falling, or at the very least to sprain one‘s ankles. To experience such lightness and elasticity in and through one‘s own body as well as to be seen as or thought of as being unbound to the ground, and to come to think of oneself as simply AIR.
My musings inspired me to practice bouncing and jumping up and down more which activates the whole body and stimulates breath flow. It also does wonders for the mood, I can literally uplift myself.
We may not all be able to be become top basket ball players but we all have the potential to propel ourselves upwards, thanks to our ankle joints and the elastic soles of our feet.