Yul Brinner played the King of Siam in the unforgettable The King and I and it was my great privilege to see him in that role in his last shows before his death. He was a man looking for truth, looking for answers, not knowing the questions, trying to meld his traditional world and the new world, the 'scientific' world that he knew his country needed to enter. Dancing with Anna was one of the most emotional moments of the presentation.
Dancing. Yesterday, rummaging in a drawer, I found a shirt evidently bought at a concert of Aztec Two Step, a favorite duo of mine. No memory of buying it but there it was, with the slogan, "We are dancers all".That sentence ran through my head all day like the proverbial worm of the mind. I thought about it and the dances we all do as we dance through life, sometimes in tune, in step and at other times badly misstepping, tripping on our own two feet and killing the toes of our partners. Worse, sometimes we never apologized, while at other times the apologies were not enough, not accepted.
Recently, we have all been dancing at a long and tiring dance of candidates. What a miserable dance. Shame on us that our lack of learning to dance has affected us so enormously at this late time in life. After a most diverse slate of hopefuls we are down to three old men. Two will face off for Democratic candidate, and the other, the sadly broken man-child of the Republicans, will be the opponent. For President!
Shame on us that the record breaking election of a black man for President did not lead to a woman as President. Yes, you are right, Hillary won her election with a majority of popular votes, the way we know all elections are supposed to be won or lost. Evidently, though, we are still using the antiquated Electoral College and hence, the Demented One now in office. Hence the troubles of the country and the world. Hence our severe unreadiness for a pandemic, or at a minimum a severe epidemic nationwide. Instead, for comfort and advice we get an ignoramus who speaks of politization of a virus, a wish for "millions to die" - from his mouth - so we know who is actually thinking those thoughts, lies about numbers of ailing, dead, readiness of testing and quarantine facilities, and the market not just tanks, it has crashed down to the basement with all the sub basement floors ready and waiting.The dances will be sadly and greatly impacted as seniors gather for final dances through life. No counting off one- two- three- as they pick up a rhythm, for the rhythm is jangly, atonal, and ear splitting.
The sanest candidate was a woman, Klobuchar. The one with the most plans and not shooting from the hip, was a woman, Warren. But here we are again. Back at the ranch with the three caballeros whose retirement time has long come ago. What is the matter with us that we keep on choosing orchestras and band leaders who have no rhythm, who cannot catch a tune for their lives, whose feet are periodically still being inserted in their mouths in bad cases of foot and mouth disease! We have not time for this, being inundated with blaring instruments, shouting rappers, slow dancers just off that one note, and so many left feet that we wonder how some are still standing!
Nor are the wallflowers any help at all. In fact, they add to the disharmony, to the clashing of not only feet, but souls. They harm and damage badly the spirit of The King and I and we, the people of the country, are left standing there around the dance floor, unable to participate, only root for someone, anyone, who can get us out of this arhythmic world. Sad dancers we all are indeed.
So now, under bad circumstances, we must pick a partner for not just the next four years, but for many years and decades to follow if our world is to stand the tests of time and new musical notes. We actually have no choice, do we? With Sanders and Biden left, the only choice is Biden with preferably a talented and capable woman as VP, such as Klobuchar, steady, waiting in the wings, ready to step up to pick up the tune right in step and in rhythm. Trump is a never, never, never again. He is the worst partner ever, in fact, not actually a partner at all, for he dances to his own bizarre music heard only within his fractured mind, and his feet are stomping, have stomped, and will continue to stomp all over our country, its traditions, its Constitutional government, over decency andgoodness, trashing the dance floor all the while until it will collapse under out feet as well.
We are dancers all. Dancing can be learned, improved and music has always been a calming factor in life. Shakespeare knew that as music was used to calm Caliban in The Tempest. We appear to have many Calibans, uncivilized creatures who care naught for anyone other than themselves and their reaching and achieving more power and a fatter wallet. Please! Please! Let us choose our dancing partners more carefully, as well as the music for dancing. It is our last possibility of sanity and rescue.
For those of you voting today in CV for UCO officers, well, you need to dance as well. The dancers who have been at UCO for so long, morphing into supposedly new dancers at meeting after meeting, who denigrate all others,anyone who dances differently, who demands to be allowed to dance - well, these stale offstep dancers need to go. We need to hear fresh, clean music for our dances now for the major issues coming up that will determine the future of more dances, the efficacy and joy of our future dancing.
Please, think carefully. Time for a new band leader. Time for new members of the orchestra. Time for new dancers at meetings that govern the Village. Time to dance! With joy and confidence. Time to hear the sweet music, not the jangly music of discord and nastiness, not here in the Village nor in the nation at large.
Meanwhile, stay healthy. Keep on dancing.
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