Your Life in Pictures and Prose (Epilogue)

Elphaba

This is not the story of Dorothy, a good girl caught up in a monstrous tornado, spat out in the Land of Oz, and trying to make her way home. This is the story of one whose heart is broken again and again, yet always trying to overcome. This is the story of Elphaba, a misunderstood green-skinned girl deemed wicked from life’s start. But what is the nature of evil, where does it come from, and can one ever truly overcome others' expectations? Will your heart, like hers, feel the heavy pangs of love and the final, wrenching pain of betrayal?

Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray conceded his soul to stay beautiful while his portrait bore his age and sins. There is danger in vanity and seeking false beauty. The superficial cannot supersede the sincere. You would be as Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “A face without a heart.”

Dr. Frankenstein

Believe in yourself, question the good doctor, and challenge the concepts he learned in school. A white coat and fancy degree do not make him right. You have done your research, and only you can feel what is happening within.

Queen Elizabeth

There once was a queen who gave birth to a prince. She sang to him, rocked him and cradled him, and thanked God for the miracle of him. She did everything for the little boy. Everything, that is, except close his lips and stand guard beside him through the night. It is from these beginnings that life's greatest successes and disappointments are foretold. And so goes the tale of how a queen took a child and made him old.

SS

Throughout my schooling, I was taught to conform, fear authority, and believe everything I was told. Every class, every day, every grade. As I look upon the world today, it is interesting to see millions of adults conform, fear authority, and believe what they are told. It hasn't done us much good, I must say.

Jekyll and Hyde

There is a struggle in every human heart. Dr. Jekyll lost hold of his kind and decent self to the nasty and brutish Mr. Hyde. Realizing that one cannot separate good from evil, the doctor takes his own life to rid the darkness within him. There is a Hyde within all of us and how we endure him will define our lives.

Harry Houdini

The great escapist Harry Houdini made a pact with his wife: if contact after death was possible, the first one to die would send the other a message. For ten years after his death, she tried to get in touch with Houdini every Halloween but never received a reply. It's a bittersweet reminder that you live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

Geronimo

Thousands of men on horseback pursued him, but he was a spirit runner. He was reared to run while holding a mouthful of water. He ran tirelessly in a trance-like state under the searing desert heat. In this way, against all the odds, Geronimo and the last band of free Apaches fought, survived, and evaded capture for decades.

NYC Subway

There are decisions you make alone. There are paths you take yourself. Look into the future and see the light that shines there. Let it burn you with the potential of tomorrow: if only you could see.

Hindenburg

What could your sleep have in common with the Hindenburg? A towering inferno starts with a spark. A sleepless night starts with an arousal. Understand, identify, and eliminate the arousal or there will be hellfire.

Dakota Territory, 1887

Who would you guess in this picture does not sleep well? The interpreter? The colonel? One of the elder Indians? It is the person with a weak jaw, twisted spine, turned hip, and bent knee who stands unbalanced: the colonel.

Bad posture equals bad sleep.

Ellis Island

When we first stepped foot on Ellis Island, we did it, for the most part, with lips closed. Take a moment to look at your class photograph. It's disheartening what has happened to us since.

"Animals are Beautiful People"

What is beauty? Beauty is not a mystical, irreducible quale. Beauty is developing the way nature intended.

Are you beautiful?

Basket Carrying Handicap Race

Function follows form

Imperfect function follows imperfect form

Golden Lotus

It is remarkable how small forces over time shape the bones of the body. The golden lotus was the most prized of bound feet in Chinese culture. Look in the mirror and smile: one's golden lotus is another's golden jaw.

WW2

Breathing, like a torpedo, should neither be seen nor heard.

Amelia Earhart

People often ask me how they can sleep better. At the risk of seeming cryptic, I tell them the truth. Think different. Let go of what you know and fly into the unknown. Then, and only then, can you sleep and live better.

Lady Caroline Lamb

It has been in front of you all this time, yet you have been blind to its influence. It is the passage of air and the bestowal of beauty. It is the nature and destiny of Man. It, the single most important bone in the body, is the maxilla.

Mona Lisa

Innocent of guile is the Mona Lisa smile.

Trust those with lips closed.

Anil Rama

It came to me in a reverie. It is a realization, a rather forbidding realization that no matter how much self-development one achieves in the social, emotional, intellectual, athletic, and spiritual spheres, there is a limit to one's life experience as established by the physical structure.

The Baker Test

Parting the lips, like splitting an atom, commences a conflagration of devastation.

"Eskimo," Mala

He was of the Earth. His teeth, worn to the bone. "Who are you? From where did you come? I have never seen anyone like you." I still remember the day I came to know another way of life, as I look to my Eskimo friend.

Cassius Clay Jr.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

But was it his footwork and fists that foreshadowed his greatness?

Not quite Cassius Clay Jr. It is the face that brings forth fortune. The teeth traverse the lips. The upper lip covers the gums. His broad smile, seen from any angle, is captivating and functional.

Little Rascals

Do these Little Rascals frighten you?

Perhaps they should.

If nature is a guide, animals bear their teeth before an attack.

Flying Tigers

Teeth bared, ready to attack.

Jackson, Mississippi

Wind shapes stone

Muscle shapes bone

Chimpanzee

It is not the chimp you should pity. It's sad to take an animal from nature, confine it to four walls, change its diet, and force it to sit in unnatural positions. Yet that is what we have done to ourselves. 

Domestication is degradation.

Symmetry

Symmetry is beauty.

Symmetry is function.

Symmetry is sleep.

Amazing Grace

Life is not a melody. Still, in this life, we choose the music we wish to play. The young girl's grace of posture is indescribably beautiful. Sitting is as natural as walking and it can be healing. Each time we sit, we have an opportunity to heal or harm. Which will you choose?

Fly

The untrained eye may focus on the fly perched on the gentleman's nose, but the trained eye of a somnologist notices something different: the pillow. It is, as most are nowadays, large and excessively raises the head but also, unfortunately, the shoulders and back, which should be kept straight.

Stay Cool

Sometimes difficult conversations yield important truths. "May I sleep in the nude?" asked a woman struggling to sleep. After careful consideration and thoughtful deliberation, I turned to her and said, "Yes, of course. In fact, it may be preferable."

Stay cool.

Lion

The lion is the most noble and graceful animal to walk our earth. His face is beautiful to admire. His powerful look comes from his powerful jaws. You would never question his ability to tear the flesh of prey. It is because the muscles and bones of the face have magnificently developed that, hush, the lion sleeps tonight.

Georgetown, Washington D.C.

Beauty is nature's art, and DNA is nature's blueprint.

True beauty defies race, sex, culture, and time.

If beauty is by nature’s design, then why is there deviation?

Every child has the potential to be beautiful. This is the deeper truth to beauty. One that can begin to serve us.

Jammie Reynolds

Balance bestows harmony with those whose lives we touch. It is balance that we seek. Balance in form and function.

Wilbur Wright

Think of your airway as an airplane. If the air flowing past the top wing surface moves faster than the air flowing past the bottom wing surface, then Bernoulli's principle implies that the pressure on the wing surfaces will be lower above than below. This pressure difference results in an upwards lifting force.

Oil Field Worker

It’s better to drink from a cup than a straw, bottle, or sippy cup. Avoid anything that impedes the tongue from contacting the mouth roof.

Apples

The notion of an apple a day keeps the doctor away has been with us since the 1800s. What is it about an apple that bestows its timeless benefits? Is it the fiber and antioxidants? Perhaps it's something altogether different: the hardness.

Feel free to choose your diet: Mediterranean, Atkins, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian, et cetera. Just ensure it is hard.

William Wrigley, Jr.

You may not recognize him, but this gentleman has unwittingly improved the sleep of millions of people in the world. Meet William Wrigley Jr. In a sea of slush, he produced a product with an ideal masticatory effort per calorie: gum.

Regardless of diligence, the softness of a modern diet is pervasive and inescapable. Do the best you can and, if needed, supplement with chewing gum. Gum is the ideal ratio of masticatory effort per calorie. Place two pieces on the back molars and chew up and down, using the tongue to keep the pieces separate in the mouth for short periods throughout the day.

Chew gum and sleep well.

Table Manners

Lay down the knife and fork. There is a proper way to eat, and the gentleman is doing it perfectly. You too should lay down your knife and fork and let the muscles of the jaw bear the full brunt of mastication.

Good behaviors at the dining table result in good outcomes in bed.

Charlton Heston

The Three Commandments

Lips closed

Teeth together

Tongue on the roof of the mouth