15

 15. The way the human body reflects the imprint of an occupation or profession. The Spanish poet Claudio Rodríguez, in a course in postwar Spanish poetry, explained that to us in class one day. I don’t know the context any more, but I knew at the time it was a significant insight, and I still tell my own students about this. I know this is somehow related to the idea of professional deformation, the tendency of one’s mind to be influenced by the deep-rooted and distinctive patterns of thought needed to be an attorney, an accountant, a poet.