adam has recently put up two new hammock swings outside. the kids like to sit and read/listen to music in them. and then fling each other wildly around the yard in them. having a strong sturdy oak with lots of nice branches helps with this endeavor. the branches are about 60 feet high. maxx shot a nerf bow and arrow with a ribbon attached to the arrow over the branch. he made it in three shots. i was very proud of his skills.
speaking of a not so proud moment. and musicals (don’t you love how i can combine all these subjects into one blog post?) sooooo i saw this youtube clip the other day on dancewalking. go on. click those blue words and watch the youttube clip. i’ll wait...
doesn’t that look like TONS OF FUN? yes, it does. don’t hide your true feelings about dancewalking. be loud and proud but be careful. take a lesson from my dancewalking playbook...
yesterday afternoon on my trail walking with kodie time (while maxx runs cross country) i was listening to the soundtrack from godspell (i have been listening to the musical of the day’s songs while i walk everyday.) i was on this particularly lonely part of the trail where i go off the beaten path and i never see anyone else (foreshadowing here). the whole walk is pretty lonely most afternoons (more foreshadowing). it is before most people are off of work. yet, it is hot already so the stay at homers are done walking (enough with the foreshadowing already. you know how this is going to end already!!!!) the perfect storm for someone who has been tempted by dancewalking. and now all the foreshadowing leads to this moment i can’t get back in my life...
i start slowly by just walking with a little sway to my hips. then on the next song i add a little arm waving. until by the time i am four songs in i am in FULL dancewalk mode. FULL DANCEWALK MODE.
FULLY ENGAGED.
as my dear friend, barry marchman, once commented about me (these are his actual words), “you don’t do anything half assed.” which is true. i put my full ass into everything that i do. and dancewalking is no exception. oh, i wish there was an exception every now and then...
so get this image full into your mind. i am on my FAVORITE SONG on the godspell album, we beseech thee. if you didn’t click on it to listen to yesterday, you might want to do that today. because hearing that and seeing the visual of how i must have been dancewalking my way down the trail might be the best laugh you have all day.
and now imagine that you are a young man. you go out running with a friend. on a lonely trail. and you happen to come upon a middle aged woman. walking her dog. whilst involved in this said dancewalking. FULLY ENGAGED in this activity. to some song you can’t hear on her head phones. wouldn’t you turn around and run back the way you came from and not disturb her? because obviously she is already disturbed? or would you join her and dancewalk with her a moment? to show her that you understand how fun it is? how super cool she is to be so free with the dance moves out on some heavily wooded trails? show some compassion and sense of mirth and joie de vivre or carpe diem or some other latin phrase that might apply at this moment? i can think of several latin phrases that would fit here...
ad absurdum. to the point of absurdity comes to mind.
ad nauseam. to a disgusting extent.
persona non grata. a non-acceptable person.
non compos mentis. insane.
in flagrante delicto. in the very act of committing an offense.
de gustibus non est disputandum. there is no accounting for taste.
okay that one didn’t come to mind.i had to look it up. but it kind of fits...
or would you make another choice? just run around her. like nothing was happening. just run right past. no eye contact. no “whoo hoo”. nothing. once i realized they were passing me, i turned down the music to hear what they said. hear their laughter. join in and acknowledge that i know this isn’t “normal” behavior. explain the dancewalking craze to them. perhaps we could all dancewalk together for a moment and have memories for a lifetime. a short moment of humanity. but they just ran on (most likely to find sticks to gouge their eyes out so they never have to see that sight again.) while i sheepishly shouted out to their rapidly retreating backsides, trying to justify what they have just seen (and ignored), “it’s dancewalking. it’s on youtube. check it out.” sometimes being ignored is worse than being mocked.
perhaps they were thinking in latin as well...
silentium est aureum. silence is golden.
suum cuique. to each his own.
magnum opus. great work.
sic transit gloria mundi. thus passes the glory of the world. i had to look that one up too.
or perhaps they had no words (latin or otherwise) for what they had just seen. they were running pretty fast. maybe the endorphins had blinded them to what they had actually seen. or made them think it was a mirage. one can hope.
and to further link that story to the marshall musical moment of may...
i will now present to you something that i never got over...
i once saw jennifer holliday sing this song LIVE in dreamgirls (skip to 3:30 in the clip to see where the song really starts.) i had never seen anyone sing like this EVER. never have since. jennifer hudson did a great job in dreamgirls the movie version. but people, jennifer holliday singing this live in front of a live audience.... there are no words. i have never gotten over it. it remains the singular best performance that i have ever seen. i don’t love the musical dreamgirls. i don’t really love any other song in it. but jennifer holliday’s rendition of this song is something i could listen to over and over and over again (perhaps even dancewalk to. come out to forest meadows today people to see the LIVE dance walker perform on the not so hidden trails.) not sure if i would feel the same way if i hadn’t seen her sing it live and in person. felt the energy in that room. i saw her LIVE (short i sound) that song out LIVE (long i sound) on stage.
i love live theater (did you realize this yet?). live music. live performances. and live people. i like to see things that are done right in front of my eyes. there is just something about that one chance to get it right. of course there are also a million chances to improv and carry on if you do mess it up. that is the really fun part. performing live is so fraught with the inherent danger of imperfection. but that makes it so real. in a way that movies and tv aren’t “real” and live.
kind of the difference between reading a great blog (i read a lot of great ones, i was NOT insinuating that THIS blog is one of those great ones) and seeing someone actually live (short i sound) stuff out LIVE (long i sound) and in person before you. i don’t want to just live out my life and faith here in words. i want to be LIVE (long i sound) and in person. fraught with the danger that comes from being LIVE and in person. i may mess it up (ha. i wrote “may mess it up”. let’s use the words “CERTAINLY WILL MESS IT UP ROYALLY”.) i will have to improv moments like perhaps screaming out after two runners, “it’s on youtube. check it out!” because frankly i need an audience (well, not when i am dancewalking). but at my heart, i am a performer. that is the way i was made by my constant Audience of One. something in me years to be seen. it can be a blessing or a curse. i try to lean heavily on the blessing side and appreciate the moments i am LIVE and in person with others. because in the end, it isn’t the scripted things that changed my life... it was the LIVE moments that i can’t get over.
jennifer holliday made me love her. she told me she wasn’t leaving and that i was going to love her. she sold that to me live. so did SomeOne else...
1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
or the message version
We, though, are going to love—love and be loved.
First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.