Don't save the last dance for me! Heck, any dance!

I grew up in a context in which we listened to a lot of music.  At home, it was a whole bunch of classical stuff.  And devotional too.  Then there were film songs that we listened to--Tamil and Hindi.  And then the pop music from the West.  The high school years were musicals ;)

While the films had a whole bunch of song and dance, and we even did our versions of singing those songs, especially the glorious bathroom singing, dancing we did not do.  Yes, of course, there was that rich heritage of dancing, from the stories of Siva's cosmic dance to even street performers.   But, dance we did not.

In graduate school, when friends got together, for the first time I was in a room when people started dancing.  Even if they couldn't keep time with the music.  People shaking their legs and hands and gyrating out of beat was quite a sight for this fresh-off-the-boater.

I neither drank nor danced.  Often people tried to get me to do both.  My personality has been the same throughout--nobody can make me do anything unless I wanted to.  The more they pressured, the more I wanted to say "get lost" but never did.  I wish I had said that, or more!

Even now, I don't understand why plenty of people think that everybody needs to dance.  Not everybody likes the movies that I like.  Not everybody likes the jokes that I like.  Why then do they think that everybody needs to dance?

I practically hate it when all those people say crap along the lines of "dance like there is nobody watching you."  Why don't they every say "do math like nobody is watching you"? ;)  What is this obsession with dancing?

Face it, there is lots to complain about it, including this stupid idea that everybody should dance!

The author of this essay expresses similar sentiments:

Why do people get so angry that you won’t dance? There’s a desperation in their pleas — no, their commands — which says far more about them than it does about you. No one gets this het up about other activities. Imagine if you were round at someone’s for dinner and declined their offer of coffee after the meal. Should they start yelling, ‘Come on, you’ve got to have coffee!’ while forcing a cup to your lips, you would run from the house as fast as possible and never see them again. Yet bullying someone into having a dance is seen as normal.

Exactly.  As a coffee drinker, I love that situation he writes about ;)

Thankfully, I don't even socialize anymore.  No more being asked why I am not up and moving my ass.  If anybody does, I think I might just about go the essay author's route:

So what’s the solution? Could I take the dance Nazis to court? After all, the manhandling they subject you to would, in any other situation, count as assault. I might give it a go next time. ‘Get back on the floor, or I’m calling the law.’

Just beat it!

The whole is more than the sum of its parts

A few years ago, a student who was apparently intrigued by my interpretation of economic geography came to my office to chat with me.  He was a non-traditional student who was also a naturalized citizen after his formative years in a large South American country where the Iberian Romance language is not Spanish.  (How about that for a clue, eh!)

We freely talked about a whole bunch of topics.  Including abortion.  He was opposed to it, he said, and added that he was a born-again Christian.  He asked me where I stood on this issue.

When people ask me, especially when we have established our interests in constructive discussions, well, I have no hassles sharing my thoughts.  I told him the long version.

During my internship way back when I was in graduate school, during a lunch time walking around in downtown Los Angeles, I came across a pro-life (anti-abortion) rally.  It suddenly clicked in me that I was neither in the pro-life camp and nor was I in the pro-choice camp.  To me, aborting a fetus is murder, yes.  Because, pregnancy is the only way we know how to create a human life.  Until science figures out some other process, abortion means terminating a life.

However, it is justifiable homicide even well into a woman's pregnancy.  If she decides to terminate the pregnancy late in the second trimester, yes, she has the right to do so.  Women choose to do it because they know that is the best possible outcome.  Who am I to say otherwise.  I cannot imagine the emotional decision-making process that a pregnant woman goes through.  "Imagine" is important here--given that I am a male who has no idea about what it means to be pregnant and, that too, unexpectedly.

Of course, that student was completely taken aback with such a view.  Especially because he knew that I am an atheist.  But, to me, such a stand is not anything strange.  As I often write here, all these are a part of a drive to understand what the point of my existence is.  The meaning of life.  In these contexts, I am, therefore, almost always saying yes to Camille Paglia, like in the following:

Although I am an atheist who worships only great nature, I recognize the superior moral beauty of religious doctrine that defends the sanctity of life.

I truly cherish and value the sincere sanctity of life arguments that sincere practitioners offer.  They--not many there are who are sincere--and I are fellow-travelers in the quest to understand the meaning of life though our preoccupation with the meaning is from different perspectives.

I like the way Paglia concludes as well:

A liberal credo that is variously anti-war, anti-fur, vegan, and committed to environmental protection of endangered species like the sage grouse or spotted owl should not be so stridently withholding its imagination and compassion from the unborn.

If only we can de-link the cheap politics from such profound discussions!

All these abortionists kill life even before conception?

Sperms are human life, too :)

On a related note, America's Finest News Source reported a while ago:

Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday the grand opening of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex, a sprawling abortion facility that will allow the organization to terminate unborn lives with an efficiency never before thought possible.

What a horrible life it will be without such humor!   Only in the good ol' US of A ... USA, USA, USA!!!