Monday, October 23, 2006
The Wisdom of the Ancients
There's an old Irish saying that says just about anything you want it to.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Dancing can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
For me it's a break. Balls and dances themselves aren't relaxing, I know that I get very tense and nervous before a dance, but dancing itself can get rid of a lot of strain.
I've grown up very reformed and very...shall we say English? Hands off, you know. Even among family, touching people is awkward. We hug...sometimes, but let's just say it's a not too common occurrance. If we aren't going to see you very often, we may hug you; it's not so awkward after all to hug someone once or twice a year. Mostly, though, it's handshakes for me. Most people who meet me will come into actual contact with me once, in a handshake. Actually I've even recently started avoiding handshakes by pretending to be doing something with my hands every time I'm introduced.
Dancing is healthy physical contact. It's not affectionate, but you acknowledge that the other person is a physical being. We aren't gnostics, okay? Every once in a while, no-touchy people need a break from backing off. This sounds very weird, and everyone is going to be trying to stay away from me, but really, what is better than a good Posties where you're being flung around this way and that by several people? Uh-huh. And what is cooler than the Dogbranch when you can send your partner flying every time you stop spinning? (It wasn't very gentlemanly of me!)
I may get lynched, or drawn and quartered, or tarred and feathered for this. It may just be too frank, but it's part of the joy of dancing. Dancing has a LOT of other meaning to me. Jane Austen spoke of the "felicities of rapid motion," I can get very philosophical about the meaning of dance and it's usefulness to show what it really means to be Trinitarian, BUT dance is also useful to speak of being incarnational. (Hey, I bet Jesus danced!) People are physical.
Sometimes we're too Victorian or something to even really admit physical being, but the real cure for that is grabbing a partner and leaping into one of them crazy Virginia Reels as called by the Mad Knights. (speaking of which, what were those about? The calls seemed just a bit random and possibly as if they were trying to confuse people ON PURPOSE!)
Was that too radical? Are you heading off to find your hot tar and you feathers? Actually, tarring and feathering sounds rather incarnational...so maybe I'll just be a gnostic today!
On a less radical point, it's nice to be able to throw your energy into something that is supposedly 'pointless.' When someone asks "What is the point?" The answer may be, "The point is that there isn't one." Having fun will always look stupid until you've tried it. It's one of things you can't actually understand; you have fun, but you don't know why. I'm not mature enough in this yet. I still can't understand why people play sports. Football and baseball and basketball (but not soccer, don't as me why) seem so completely stupid to me that I don't know why anyone plays them. And yet they do. Some people I suppose play them with exercise in mind, but really most people play them for the joy of exerting yourself to do nothing...and have fun doing just that. (Or so I suppose, maybe there's a better reason.) Dancing is a sport; it's a complex sport, but it is one. (It's a sport in a sense; It's sure not as silly looking!...well.....)
God bless y'all. And don't y'all shoot the messenger neither!
Oh, and...am I wrong? I just started thinking and I couldn't stop. Have I expressed it wrong? Have I scared anyone off the dance floor for life?
For me it's a break. Balls and dances themselves aren't relaxing, I know that I get very tense and nervous before a dance, but dancing itself can get rid of a lot of strain.
I've grown up very reformed and very...shall we say English? Hands off, you know. Even among family, touching people is awkward. We hug...sometimes, but let's just say it's a not too common occurrance. If we aren't going to see you very often, we may hug you; it's not so awkward after all to hug someone once or twice a year. Mostly, though, it's handshakes for me. Most people who meet me will come into actual contact with me once, in a handshake. Actually I've even recently started avoiding handshakes by pretending to be doing something with my hands every time I'm introduced.
Dancing is healthy physical contact. It's not affectionate, but you acknowledge that the other person is a physical being. We aren't gnostics, okay? Every once in a while, no-touchy people need a break from backing off. This sounds very weird, and everyone is going to be trying to stay away from me, but really, what is better than a good Posties where you're being flung around this way and that by several people? Uh-huh. And what is cooler than the Dogbranch when you can send your partner flying every time you stop spinning? (It wasn't very gentlemanly of me!)
I may get lynched, or drawn and quartered, or tarred and feathered for this. It may just be too frank, but it's part of the joy of dancing. Dancing has a LOT of other meaning to me. Jane Austen spoke of the "felicities of rapid motion," I can get very philosophical about the meaning of dance and it's usefulness to show what it really means to be Trinitarian, BUT dance is also useful to speak of being incarnational. (Hey, I bet Jesus danced!) People are physical.
Sometimes we're too Victorian or something to even really admit physical being, but the real cure for that is grabbing a partner and leaping into one of them crazy Virginia Reels as called by the Mad Knights. (speaking of which, what were those about? The calls seemed just a bit random and possibly as if they were trying to confuse people ON PURPOSE!)
Was that too radical? Are you heading off to find your hot tar and you feathers? Actually, tarring and feathering sounds rather incarnational...so maybe I'll just be a gnostic today!
On a less radical point, it's nice to be able to throw your energy into something that is supposedly 'pointless.' When someone asks "What is the point?" The answer may be, "The point is that there isn't one." Having fun will always look stupid until you've tried it. It's one of things you can't actually understand; you have fun, but you don't know why. I'm not mature enough in this yet. I still can't understand why people play sports. Football and baseball and basketball (but not soccer, don't as me why) seem so completely stupid to me that I don't know why anyone plays them. And yet they do. Some people I suppose play them with exercise in mind, but really most people play them for the joy of exerting yourself to do nothing...and have fun doing just that. (Or so I suppose, maybe there's a better reason.) Dancing is a sport; it's a complex sport, but it is one. (It's a sport in a sense; It's sure not as silly looking!...well.....)
God bless y'all. And don't y'all shoot the messenger neither!
Oh, and...am I wrong? I just started thinking and I couldn't stop. Have I expressed it wrong? Have I scared anyone off the dance floor for life?
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Solemn Joy--I guess
This world is filled with cynics. I think I may have been one of them when I was about eleven. Hence, even today, my glasses aren't rose-colored. All the same I have difficulty being serious.
When others are being serious, I start joking. I can't help myself; I speak quickly what comes to mind, and then, of course, insist that it was well and truly nothing (my beliefs on what constitutes nothing may be told another time). And what do I say? I couldn't tell you. All I can say is : Oh, nothing really.
But what am I doing? I'm organizing my thoughts. Laughter holds my life together. Laughter is the deeply serious mission of my life. While others talk about grand visions what am I doing? Punning and finishing their sentences for them! I don't stand for straight faces.
Now, I couldn't tell you why I do this. I just do. It's quite the same as "Why is the grass green?" It just is. Red might as well have been the best color for chlorophyll and whatnot, but who wants red grass? I have been known to smile at the thought that grass is green and sunburns are red (speaking of which, I had quite the bright red face Sunday evening, but red is such a cheerful color). And what is the meaning of wood?
When others are being serious, I start joking. I can't help myself; I speak quickly what comes to mind, and then, of course, insist that it was well and truly nothing (my beliefs on what constitutes nothing may be told another time). And what do I say? I couldn't tell you. All I can say is : Oh, nothing really.
But what am I doing? I'm organizing my thoughts. Laughter holds my life together. Laughter is the deeply serious mission of my life. While others talk about grand visions what am I doing? Punning and finishing their sentences for them! I don't stand for straight faces.
Now, I couldn't tell you why I do this. I just do. It's quite the same as "Why is the grass green?" It just is. Red might as well have been the best color for chlorophyll and whatnot, but who wants red grass? I have been known to smile at the thought that grass is green and sunburns are red (speaking of which, I had quite the bright red face Sunday evening, but red is such a cheerful color). And what is the meaning of wood?
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