Human embodiment brings to my mind an image of a man juggling, while navigating a tightrope. Each ball represents a particular bodily need (protection from illness and disease, warmth, water, food, hygiene, sex, child-rearing, etc) that progressively becomes more burdensome as it falls towards the jugglers hands. He or she (motivated by the sense of dis-ease, dissatisfaction, pain, or suffering felt) addresses and deals with the need, throwing the ball up again, buying time as the next ball falls into his hands. The tightrope has no end. Man simply juggles these balls while inching along in time, until he misses his catch, stumbles and falls to his death. Depending on his or her particular individual genetic and situational fortune, some men can throw their balls higher, some are born with less balls to juggle, some possess better skills, some have others to help their balance - others feel they have nothing to tread towards and willingly jump.

Obviously, under this view it is an unenviable position to be stranded on a tightrope in this precarious situation. But - people might say - there are upsides to this situation. We may feel pleasure when dealing with a particular need - scratching an itch, quenching our thirst, satiating our hunger, satisfying our sex drive. We have moments when all our balls are airborne where we use the respite to pursue interests, projects, hobbies, leisure - relationships. Perhaps most meaningfully, we (although not all) don't juggle alone. We have others to help, and to help us juggle. We find company to keep, connections to make, relationships to form, love to fall in. We feel we are juggling for something, we tread our tightropes towards something.

But is this not too, just another ball to juggle? Maintaining relationships, warding off loneliness, boredom, ennui, depression. The objects and subjects of our desire and affections must be attracted, held onto, maintained. Friendships end, relationships fail, heartbreak hurts. And as we tread on further in time, we watch ourselves and others aging, slowing, losing our abilities to juggle. Eventually (or suddenly), those we care about stumble their catch, suffer and fall to their death. And all the while new jugglers are being born into the circus, raised and trained in the art by parents, a community and wider social structure until they are skilled enough to manage their balls. Some appear to take great delight in observing and participating in this - after all, the show must go on!

But, does it? Perhaps this is a cynical view, but it seems to me that once born we are compelled to juggle, and our options are to either cultivate better skills, throw our balls higher to find time to lose (distract?) ourselves in our interests, or willingly lose our balance entirely. Regardless, we all fall in the end. Would it not be better to close down the circus? Perhaps - but this seems impossible when the circus itself emerges as a consequence of us jugglers - the show continues as a consequence of dealing with our needs for sex, relationships, family, love, etc (which are predicated upon having already dealt with more basic needs like protection, water, shelter, etc). We aren't all going to stop juggling together.

So what to do? I think I'd prefer to have been not been embodied in the first place.