Gotta Dance
July 14, 2008
I would believe only in a God that knows
how to Dance. Nietzche
To watch us dance is to hear our hearts
speak. Hopi Indian Saying
The way Marge Gull feels about it, anybody
who thinks 95 is too old to dance can take a
flying leap over a defibrillator cart. 'I
dance up a storm,' Marge says.
Anchorage Daily News
Once there was a time when the whole of
rational creation formed a single dancing
chorus looking upwards to the one leader of
the dance. And the harmony of that motion
which was imparted to them by reason of his
law found its way into their dancing.
Gregory of Nyssa
Attending a conference on religion in Japan,
Joseph Campbell overheard another American
delegate, a social philosopher from New York,
say to a Shinto priest, "We've been now to a
great many ceremonies and have seen quite a
few of your shrines. But I don't get your
ideology. I don't get your theology."
The Japanese priest paused as though in deep thought, and then slowly shook his head.
"I think we don't have ideology," he said. "We don't have theology. We dance."
Today, put on your dancing shoes.
Which, for many of us, is all well and good if we're alone in our living room doing YMCA with the Village People full blast.
But here's the deal: Putting on my dancing shoes is not about impressing anyone or trying to win some reality show called, so (middle-aged-white-guy) you think you can dance.
Saturday night was our Island Strawberry Festival Dance. Main street is closed. Big Band standards (from our own Portage Fil-Harmonic) permeate the air. The street is chock-full, old and young, inelegant and fluid, children and children at heart. The dancing unencumbered, unabashed and joyful. Everyone celebrating this day. Celebrating this life, as a half-moon smiled down from the southern sky. When the rock 'n rollers took the stage, my son charges to the middle of the pack, becoming an exuberant explosion of arms and legs and neck and chest and feet and hands and fingers! I have no idea what he calls it, but like King David, he danced with all his might!
Watching my son reminded me of a Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) story. The founder of the Chassidic movement, the Rabbi was asked: "Why is it that Chassidim burst into song and dance at the slightest provocation? Is this the behavior of a healthy, sane individual?"
The Baal Shem Tov responded with a story: Once, a musician came to town -- a musician of great but unknown talent. He stood on a street corner and began to play. Those who stopped to listen could not tear themselves away, and soon a large crowd stood enthralled by the glorious music whose equal they had never heard. Before long they were moving to its rhythm, and the entire street was transformed into a dancing mass of humanity.
A deaf man walking by wondered: Has the world gone mad? Why are the townspeople jumping up and down, waving their arms and turning in circles in middle of the street?
"Chassidim," concluded the Baal Shem Tov, "are moved by the melody that issues forth from every creature in God's creation. If this makes them appear mad to those with less sensitive ears, should they therefore cease to dance?"
How does it begin? What allow us to put on our dancing shoes?
Gratitude for fullness of life.
For this moment.
Former Trappist George Fowler writes, "I have come to realize that a mother lode of strength lies waiting in all of us, unmined gold yearning to gleam in the sunlight."
This is not easy because our knee-jerk reaction requires instructions.
I teach writing. And the first lesson is the most difficult: Write. Write, without editing, censoring, rewriting or revising. Simply write.
One Saturday, a mother asked her young son to polish her Sunday shoes. When he finished, she handed him fifty cents for a job well done.
Sunday morning, slipping on her shoes, she felt a block. Reaching in, she removed a wadded paper. Inside the paper she found fifty cents. On the paper, in her son's lettering, "Dear mom, here is your money. I done it for love."
Our dance comes from that place. We have no one to impress and nothing to prove.
So, we dance, lost in the moment. Which is not completely accurate, perhaps absorbed by the moment? Like an athlete who says, "I left it all on the field today." In other words, I lived this moment whole hearted--with my whole heart.
Which means I did not listen to my limitations. The limitations of --
Fear
Impatience
Insecurity
Pain
Loss
Or, in the words of Kitty Lunn, dance teacher from a wheel chair, "The dancer inside me doesn't know or care that I fell down the stairs and have a spinal cord injury. She just wants to keep on dancing."
While working as a family physicians in a Native American hospital in the Southwest, Carl Hammerschlag was introduced to a patient named Santiago, a Pueblo priest and clan chief, who asked him where he had learned how to heal. Hammerschlag responded almost by rote, rattling off his medical education, internship, and certification. The old man replied, "Do you know how to dance?"
To humor Santiago, Hammerschlag shuffled his feet at the priest's bedside.
Despite his condition, Santiago got up and demonstrated the proper steps. "You must be able to dance if you are to heal people," he admonished the young doctor. "I can teach you my steps, but you will have to hear your own music."
We dance for laughter,
we dance for tears,
we dance for madness,
we dance for fears,
we dance for hopes,
we dance for screams,
we are the dancers,
we create the dreams.
Anon
"May God's life dance within you as you pause for quiet places and prayer in your busy life." Joyce Rupp
I Won't Take No For An Answer
I won't take no for an answer,
God began to say
To me
When He opened His arms each night
Wanting us to
Dance.
St. Catherine of Siena
(Recommendation: For inspiration, watch War Dance, a documentary about war refugees in Uganda, who demonstrate the necessity of dancing even amidst the most trying circumstances. The story follows children from the Acholi tribe, now war orphans representing the Patongo Primary School in a national music competition, where the children hope to compete and celebrate the power of music and dance to heal our deepest, emotional wounds. --www.shineglobal.org -- Craig Detweiler)
The Japanese priest paused as though in deep thought, and then slowly shook his head.
"I think we don't have ideology," he said. "We don't have theology. We dance."
Today, put on your dancing shoes.
Which, for many of us, is all well and good if we're alone in our living room doing YMCA with the Village People full blast.
But here's the deal: Putting on my dancing shoes is not about impressing anyone or trying to win some reality show called, so (middle-aged-white-guy) you think you can dance.
Saturday night was our Island Strawberry Festival Dance. Main street is closed. Big Band standards (from our own Portage Fil-Harmonic) permeate the air. The street is chock-full, old and young, inelegant and fluid, children and children at heart. The dancing unencumbered, unabashed and joyful. Everyone celebrating this day. Celebrating this life, as a half-moon smiled down from the southern sky. When the rock 'n rollers took the stage, my son charges to the middle of the pack, becoming an exuberant explosion of arms and legs and neck and chest and feet and hands and fingers! I have no idea what he calls it, but like King David, he danced with all his might!
Watching my son reminded me of a Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) story. The founder of the Chassidic movement, the Rabbi was asked: "Why is it that Chassidim burst into song and dance at the slightest provocation? Is this the behavior of a healthy, sane individual?"
The Baal Shem Tov responded with a story: Once, a musician came to town -- a musician of great but unknown talent. He stood on a street corner and began to play. Those who stopped to listen could not tear themselves away, and soon a large crowd stood enthralled by the glorious music whose equal they had never heard. Before long they were moving to its rhythm, and the entire street was transformed into a dancing mass of humanity.
A deaf man walking by wondered: Has the world gone mad? Why are the townspeople jumping up and down, waving their arms and turning in circles in middle of the street?
"Chassidim," concluded the Baal Shem Tov, "are moved by the melody that issues forth from every creature in God's creation. If this makes them appear mad to those with less sensitive ears, should they therefore cease to dance?"
How does it begin? What allow us to put on our dancing shoes?
Gratitude for fullness of life.
For this moment.
Former Trappist George Fowler writes, "I have come to realize that a mother lode of strength lies waiting in all of us, unmined gold yearning to gleam in the sunlight."
This is not easy because our knee-jerk reaction requires instructions.
I teach writing. And the first lesson is the most difficult: Write. Write, without editing, censoring, rewriting or revising. Simply write.
One Saturday, a mother asked her young son to polish her Sunday shoes. When he finished, she handed him fifty cents for a job well done.
Sunday morning, slipping on her shoes, she felt a block. Reaching in, she removed a wadded paper. Inside the paper she found fifty cents. On the paper, in her son's lettering, "Dear mom, here is your money. I done it for love."
Our dance comes from that place. We have no one to impress and nothing to prove.
So, we dance, lost in the moment. Which is not completely accurate, perhaps absorbed by the moment? Like an athlete who says, "I left it all on the field today." In other words, I lived this moment whole hearted--with my whole heart.
Which means I did not listen to my limitations. The limitations of --
Fear
Impatience
Insecurity
Pain
Loss
Or, in the words of Kitty Lunn, dance teacher from a wheel chair, "The dancer inside me doesn't know or care that I fell down the stairs and have a spinal cord injury. She just wants to keep on dancing."
While working as a family physicians in a Native American hospital in the Southwest, Carl Hammerschlag was introduced to a patient named Santiago, a Pueblo priest and clan chief, who asked him where he had learned how to heal. Hammerschlag responded almost by rote, rattling off his medical education, internship, and certification. The old man replied, "Do you know how to dance?"
To humor Santiago, Hammerschlag shuffled his feet at the priest's bedside.
Despite his condition, Santiago got up and demonstrated the proper steps. "You must be able to dance if you are to heal people," he admonished the young doctor. "I can teach you my steps, but you will have to hear your own music."
We dance for laughter,
we dance for tears,
we dance for madness,
we dance for fears,
we dance for hopes,
we dance for screams,
we are the dancers,
we create the dreams.
Anon
"May God's life dance within you as you pause for quiet places and prayer in your busy life." Joyce Rupp
I Won't Take No For An Answer
I won't take no for an answer,
God began to say
To me
When He opened His arms each night
Wanting us to
Dance.
St. Catherine of Siena
(Recommendation: For inspiration, watch War Dance, a documentary about war refugees in Uganda, who demonstrate the necessity of dancing even amidst the most trying circumstances. The story follows children from the Acholi tribe, now war orphans representing the Patongo Primary School in a national music competition, where the children hope to compete and celebrate the power of music and dance to heal our deepest, emotional wounds. --www.shineglobal.org -- Craig Detweiler)
Poems / Prayers
Our Hearts Should Do This More
I sit in the streets with the homeless
My clothes stained with the wine
From the vineyards the saints tend.
Light has painted all acts
The same color
So I sit around and laugh all day
With my friends.
At night if I feel a divine loneliness
I tear the doors off Love's mansion
And wrestle God onto the floor.
He becomes so pleased with Hafiz
And says,
"Our hearts should do this more."
Hafiz
I hope you dance
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
Lee Ann Womack
Leader: God of all life, you led the Hebrew people from slavery to freedom, from a bondaged land to promised land. We thank you for their song and story, passed down to us through the ages. In you we are set free.
People: And the people all said, "Jubilee!"
Leader: God of hope and promise, you brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, of new life and new dreams. Help us to offer milk, honey, and new dreams to all your world, for in you we are set free.
People: And the people all said, "Jubilee!"
Leader: God of peace, our liberated ancestors followed you in the wilderness and, though it was not easy, found a way of harmony and cooperation. Help us on this very special day to still follow your way, to teach the ways of harmony and cooperation, and live lives of liberation and Jubilee, for in you we are still set free.
People: And the people proclaimed, "Jubilee!"
Leader: God of community, you gave us families and friends, neighbors and new people so that we may not be alone. Help us open our community to all who need a home, for in you everyone can be set free.
People: And the people proclaimed, "Jubilee!"
Leader: God of life and fullness, you nurture and tend us wherever we are. Help us extend your loving-kindness and generosity to all, and especially to those who are sick, lonely, in prison or afraid, for in you we are all set free.
People: And the people all shouted, "Jubilee!"
Leader: God, you sent your child, Jesus, who proclaimed liberation to the captives and was a teacher and a friend. Help each of us to find you whenever we seek you, that we may be strengthened and our hearts may be lifted up, for in you we are set free.
People: And the people all shouted, "Jubilee!"
Africa Action
Peace,
Terry Hershey
