You'll get tired of reading it. Art, music and dance was important on my Dad's side of the family. Academics, mathematics and science were important on my Mom's side of the family. Yes. We were all formerly educated. Sometimes it just doesn't feel like enough. I remember asking my cousin Odie for help with dance. I really should've waited until he was through with competition season. He gets in this zone. It's difficult to explain. I do recall him finding my focus lacking. He thought since I just wasn't in his words "becoming the music", perhaps it'd help me to have an external focal point.
The first time we tried this "find your focus" experiment. He was teaching me to spin the rifle. He tossed it a little high. He punctured the ceiling. We hid it for months until he could fix it. On another occasion, he thought it might help if I saw old photographs and film reels of my Dad. My Dad and Auntie Nilda were national dance champions in their youth. He was in my Auntie's attic under the ruse of finding Christmas decorations when he fell through the ceiling in the living room. The funny thing was our Grandmother had the photographs and reels.
He wasn't wrong about dance being a feeling. Some people can be inspired to move with the melody. Others really just have to feel it first. When you watch a crowd or a performance, you can tell who's there to be there and who's there because they love it. He always loved what he did. That's why people gravitated towards him. That's why his enthusiasm was infectious. He didn't just teach me how to be a better dancer, he taught me life is short. He taught me it isn't worth doing if it makes me miserable. He taught me to pursue the things I enjoy and love. He also taught me that happiness is best shared.
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