by Genesis Lung on Friday, September 17, 2010 at 2:48pm
In the same vein of thought of the great nihilist and skeptic philosophers, there is nothing in our universe that compels us to find a purpose. We can sit through our lives and never choose to devote ourselves to a religion or cause, die, and it will never matter. But every one of these skeptics and nihilists were great artists, and the greater half were dancers. As an unknown author recalled, "Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected."

We gravitate towards beauty. We see beauty in design, in music, in motion. It is not the purpose of life to create beauty, but we have a natural inclination to the arrival at the arts. Visual design sparks our curiousity. Music causes our hearts to beat to a rhythm, and we are inclined to create motions to it, motions with design, with the purpose to express. It is when we dance that our bodies are truly on fire and at times we begin to feel as if we have found a purpose in this world that offers none. All the other arts revolve around dance. Much of the time for visual design artists, it's not the finished work that they enjoy the most, but the act of creation, the dance of the brush. For writer is is the dance of the pen, and for musicians the dance of the bow or the fingers. Nietzche had it right when he claimed that "dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?"

Music's effect on us strips our skeptic minds and our logic to our animalistic, bestial cores. We stop analyzing and simply respond to our surroundings. Our senses are overwhelmed by the music, colors become more vivid, and our kinesthesis is enhanced. With a steady, repetitious beat and melody we instinctively anticipate the arrival of the next note, and feel safe in our knowledge and power, because we can act on it by moving to the next sound. Dancing can induce such feelings of passion that we lose track of time, lose our fatigue, and fall in love in the span of a four minute song (DJ Got Us Falling In Love, anyone?). Without dance, music has no feeling. "Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music," remarks William Stafford. And it is true: "Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance," furthers Ezra Pound.

Dance is something that is nonsensical. We don't understand why we are compelled to do it, but we love and enjoy it, because it carries a magical, almost spiritual experience. As Edwin Denby confessed, "there is a little bit of insanity in dancing that does everyone a great deal of good." Even the Japanese have a proverb that says "we're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance." Dance is one of the most powerful drugs which is almost a disease. Eddie Uehara calls his talent an "infection", because it is unstoppable. We simply cannot bear not to dance. Dance is ecstacy, the only thing that will always bring happiness. "Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain." - Unknown

"I see dance being used as communication between body and soul," said Ruth St. Denis, "to express what is too deep to find for words." "Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!" Shouts Constanze. It feels as if the heavens open up, and we have become one with our world, developing a synergy of sorts. We are literally laid open like a book, establishing an unspoken trust to the people we dance with. Agnes de Mille writes that "the truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music.  Bodies never lie," supported by Martha Graham, who continues, saying that "movement never lies.  It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it." "We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive... and part of the living, incarnate cosmos," ends D.H. Lawrence.

"I would only believe in a God who knows how to dance," sums up Nietzche. "I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal."

I truly believe the only philosophy in this world worth my time to follow is dance.
Now it's time to stop writing and just DANCE MY HEART OUT!

Form causes a gut reaction, instinctive appreciation for form.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, ...who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause.

T Roosevelt

thanks tara

This has not been broken since 9/11/01, please keep it going... This has been kept alive and moving since 9/11. In memory of all those who perished this morning; the passengers and the pilots on the United Air and AA flights, the workers in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and all the innocent bystanders. Our prayers go out to the friends and families of the deceased.

 IF I KNEW If I knew it would be the last time That I'd see you fall asleep, I would tuck you in more tightly and pray the Lord, your soul to keep. If I knew it would be the last time that I see you walk out the door, I would give you a hug and kiss and call you back for one more. If I knew it would be the last time I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise, I would video tape each action and word, so I could play them back day after day.. If I knew it would be the last time, I could spare an extra minute to stop and say "I love you," instead of assuming you would KNOW I do. If I knew it would be the last time I would be there to share your day, Well I'm sure you'll have so many more, so I can let just this one slip away.

 For surely there's always tomorrow to make up for an oversight, and we always get a second chance to make everything just right. There will always be another day to say "I love you," And certainly there's another chance to say our "Anything I can do?" But just in case I might be wrong, and today is all I get, I'd like to say how much I love you and I hope we never forget.

 Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old alike, And today may be the last chance you get to hold your loved one tight. So if you're waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today? For if tomorrow never comes, you'll surely regret the day, That you didn't take that extra time for a smile, a hug, or a kiss and you were too busy to grant someone, what turned out to be their one last wish.

 So hold your loved ones close today, and whisper in their ear, Tell them how much you love them and that you'll always hold them dear Take time to say "I'm sorry," "Please forgive me," "Thank you," or "It's okay." And if tomorrow never comes, you'll have no regrets about today.

Sent By Asia
March 2003

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...one old love she can imagine going back to... and one who reminds her how far she has come...
 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own even if she never wants to or needs to...

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..something perfect to wear if the employer or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..a youth she's content to leave behind...

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her old age....

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry... 

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honored..

 A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...a feeling of control over her destiny...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ..how to fall in love without losing herself...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ..how to quit a job, break up with a lover, and confront a friend without ruining the friendship...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ...when to try harder... and when to walk away...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ...that she can't change the length of her calves, the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ...that her childhood may not ! have been perfect...but its over...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ...what she would and wouldn't do for love or more... 

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ..how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ...whom she can trust, whom she can't, and why she shouldn't take it personally...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ...where to go... be it to her best friend's kitchen table... or a charming inn in the woods... when her soul needs soothing...

 EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW... ..what she can and can't accomplish in a day... a month...and a year...

Sent by Daddy Yuan

Wed, 23 Apr 2003

 Shake it Off

 One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He asked all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed shovels and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, when the donkey realized what was happening, he cried horribly.

Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

 Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off! Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!