I was listening to a lecture by Bernie Clarke, the well-known author and Yin Yoga teacher. He shared a story about his student, Fred*, who, for years, was instructed to “bring his feet together parallel” in a yoga pose. But every time Bernie looked up, there was Fred—feet firmly splayed like a ballet dancer in first position, heels together, toes out. Despite Bernie’s relentless efforts to nudge him into the “correct” position, Fred’s feet just wouldn’t cooperate. The answer, it turns out, lay in the unique twists and torsions of Fred’s bones. But this raises many questions: Why was Fred’s body doing this? Why do feet have to be parallel? And what makes a yoga pose “correct”?