Tao of Elvis: Afterword

Elvis: Bright New Life Born
to Transform a Land of the Dead

by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
author of Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Dr David Rosen writes with a tender love of Elvis. It seems so poignant then that Elvis sang “Love Me Tender” and that this came true through many of us.

… I recently watched one of Elvis’s film clips on television…. In the film clip, one could see that he was a naturally gifted athlete, that he possessed an innate boon for mastery of any dance, and that he had been granted an astonishing charism of voice. Charism means gift from Creator. It is not a skill, not a learned trope. It is a mysterious gift.

… Too, there was an even more striking aspect about Elvis. His spirit, the animating force of a person, showed on the outside of his body. This spirit of flaming life seemed so well and deeply fitted into his body. He was undeniably and un-self-consciously at ease in relation to his every limb, every digit, every pulse, every moment. Remember, this was in contrast to most other mainstream men of his time, both the young and the old, who were most often swathed in cloth from their shoes up to their collars. Most women of the time pressed themselves into flesh-squishing girdles and hydraulic underwear, with all skirt hems held at mid-calf and ankle. But more so, the customs of the times required that everything be held in, held up, and held down—flesh, emotion, thoughts, longing, and especially, deportment of the body.

And along came Elvis….

He kept singing and dancing and creating … during his time on earth … and that ever he sang for life, for life, for Life….