We forget, understandably as we concentrate on what we must do, that a little dancing is something we need to do – and everyday in some way, I want to suggest. Those who know me also know I have a collection of 45 records, which (for those of you who do not know) are recordings of songs from the 50’s and early 60’s. You know, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly. Anyway, as those who live above and below me know, I play them late at night sometimes and (the secret is now out) I dance about my living room to shake out the day. I mention this because that dancing is a bit of celebration for the day that needs also to come due. That personal dancing is another sort of obligation that I assign myself (for myself).
I see the flowers on the Magnolias in our courtyards doing the same. They seem to be the veils of a dancer, one veil on the floor and one flung overhead. And the gingko in his stolid green seems the male dancer who raises his arms to lift or spin her. These two courtyard trees spin in the wind from their May poles of night and day as the Magnolia’s petals are shaken by wind and rain onto the grass, as they bow in the light from our windows, I am lost in the contrast between their natural song and my standing off to the side like some seventh grader at a middle-school dance, too shy to ask, "May I?" The Magnolia petals flutter. The gingko steps high. The single red tulip near our Temple Street gate bows to an unknown partner. Seeing these and other dancers today reminds me that we need to put a little dance (of some sort in some way) into each day, especially into these days. Dance as if no one is watching.
--Dean Loge
In other dance-related news, a snapshot from my desk, circa this morning:
Catnip anyone? Oh just a typical Friday...
Addendum: one of my favorite aphorisms from the Hitchhiker's Guide ("the best Bang since the Big One") led me to this Wikipedia entry--too good!