7.31.2008

Some Thoughts on Play, and Dancing

A number of people I can think of (including Rev.Dr.Kate) have been thinking about play lately.

I've been thinking about dancing with Brendan Fraser. No, it's not something I expect to see happen anytime soon, but it does make me think about the connections between playfulness, confidence, grace, and peace.

Mr. M and I watched School Ties a couple of weeks ago, because I decided to add all Brendan Fraser movies to the top of our Netflix queue. It's a really mediocre movie at best. Good cast, decent idea for the plot, painfully flimsy writing. But, it turns out, Mr. Fraser is quite a good dancer! (There's only a little dancing, but if you have a crush, a little is all you need!) And then last night, when someone was talking to me about their later-in-life-than-usual need to learn to play, I thought about dancing. You simply cannot do it if you're worried, or self-conscious, or scared, or not having a good time. Even bad dancers are fun to watch when they're having fun. You have to know how to play to be able to dance, then, yes?

I think there are life lessons in this, so I'm going to mull it over for a little while, but I wanted to throw the beginnings of my thoughts out there to you all.

1 comment:

  1. Di,
    There's a book called Dancing With God, by Jay Emerson Johnson. I've managed to get through the first chapter - only stopping because I have been working so much, not because it's bad writing. He writes not so much on the aspect of Play in our relationship with God/Divine but on the interplays between music, floor, rules/boundaries, and persons.
    ~Charlotte

    ReplyDelete

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."
-Saint Molly Ivins