dance -- swing

Swing Dance

For some people it is a panther in motion, or Micheal Jordan. For others it is Niagra Falls, Winged Victory, or the Sun. But for me, the most beautiful thing I have ever whitnessed in my life was a dance. A guy, a girl, a floor, a band.

The couple had more grace than a panther and more magic than Micheal Jordan. The dance was more of a wonder than Niagra Falls. It cut space with more power than Winged Victory and measured time more meaningfully than the sun.

I first observed this kind of "transcendence" in a couple at a dance in 1999. Since then it has happened to me several times. Not a lot, but enough to change my idea of the meaning of life.

It has only been through dancing that I've experienced what philosophers, monks, travelers, and spiritual pilgrims of all sorts have sought forever: a kind of "one-ness" of time & space, past & future, the self & and the other. Hindus call it Nirvana. Buddhists call it Nibbana. Musicians call it the "groove". Swing dancers call it "connection".

It is the highest and richest form of existence I have come to experience and the most convincing evidence I have found for paradise.