97. Wanna Dance?
Recently, I happened to be in the near vicinity, of a minor husband and wife thing, from which I attempted to walk away, before being dragged, into the verbal fray. I was too slow and got caught.
The forty-something husband and twenty-something wife were trying to decide how to celebrate his birthday. She wanted to go dancing and he didn't. He stated a preference for hiking and or any other physical activity that takes one out into nature. He shared that not only does he hate dancing, he underlined it by saying, "and besides, I can't dance."
I immediately began to laugh. "Ah, you hate dancing because you can't and therefore you won't?" "It's simple. Go dancing and show her how terrible you are at it. She'll be so embarrassed, she won't ask you to go dancing again."
They both looked at me and neither knew what to say in response to my comment. I then added, "Or, who knows, you'll both end up laughing and having a good time, which is what dancing is all about anyway." I then walked away.
Actually, since it was his birthday, he should have the option to choose, but I didn't wish to act as a referee in the matter.
This little incident caused me to cogitate further, on the social dynamics of what dancing represents. First, I would think that any man married to a much younger woman might want to keep her happy, by not acting or sounding like an old fart. Secondly, why is it some men haven't figured it out? Most women adore a man who can dance. The most popular guys are always the ones who dance. They don't hire men just to act as dance partners on cruise ships for nothing.
I'm reminded of the cruise, to the Greek islands, I took for my 50th birthday present to myself. Though I was doing my Greta Garbo act, wanting to be alone all the time, I did decide to check out the dancing one evening. There were several couples, outnumbered by single women, with only six men hired to dance, with all those women.
Each time there was music that involved anything other than the usual slow dancing of shuffling feet around, such as with the rumba, tango samba, etc., all the other women declined to dance, except moi. So of course I was being asked to dance every single dance and loving it. (I had taken ballroom dancing in a college physical education course and it was finally paying off!) I could hear some snide little comments from the sidelines, "who does she think she is?"
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