As a leader you are totally and dynamically reliant upon God and your fellow human beings for your well-being and continued existence. Nonetheless, you remain irreducibly distinctive, independent, and irreplaceable with even greater individual capacity, influence, and significance, finding the center of your existence and significance in God and others.
I Won’t Dance
Some people collect stamps; some collect rare coins; others collect antiques or baseball cards.
I collect experiences. My life’s album is a treasure chest of incredible, thrilling, “once-in-a-lifetime” adventures. Many of these experiences have been life-changing quests. I continue to have a zeal for adding even more pages to my collection of life-altering adventures.
However, there is one experience I have no desire whatsoever to add to my collection. I won’t dance! My wife, Sarah, is one of those tormented women described by Groucho Marx, who once quipped, “Wives are people who feel they don’t dance enough.” Sarah suffers great anguish because I won’t dance with her. Every fiber of her being yearns, desires, even aches, to waltz, polka, salsa, square dance, clog, even bunny hop at wedding receptions. But I won’t even slow dance. Privately, it grieves me to see the hurt in her eyes – but I just won’t dance.
I don’t have any moral or religious convictions against dancing. I’m sure that by now you are thinking that I am the perfect prude. But don’t misunderstand me – so let me shine more light on the matter.
The fact of the matter is – I simply can’t dance.
The fact of the matter is – I simply can’t dance.
Every self-conscious fiber of my being rises to the surface. I feel exposed and naked. I just “know” that every single eye in the universe is riveted on me – pointing and snickering at me as I trip and stumble and jerk around the dance floor. My joints and muscles lock up. I end up standing, rigidly, in the middle of the dance floor – completely embarrassed and humiliated. It is at this moment that the words of the rock group, Genesis, play over and over and over again in my head:
I can’t dance, I can’t talk.
The only thing about me is the way I walk.
I can’t dance, I can’t sing
I’m just standing here selling everything.
But I Love the Dance!
Ironically, though, I enjoy watching others dance. I enjoy attending the ballet. I’ve even purchased front row seats to Michael Flately’s Lord of the Dance three times, so that I could fully experience, albeit vicariously, the classic tale of good versus evil, played out by perfect precision dancing, dramatic original music, colorful costumes, and state-of-the-art production techniques. I am amazed by the virtuosity of the dancers, who, it is estimated, complete 151,200 taps per show. I wonder how they can never seem to miss a beat. By the way, who had the time, energy, and keenness of eyesight to count 151,200 taps?
Indeed, there is indescribable beauty and elegance in watching a dancer reveal her soul through the movements of her body – dancing, as choreographer George Balanchine said, “…not because she wants to – but because she has to.” Nothing is more inspiring than watching people dance with energy, grace, and technical precision.
I can’t dance, I can’t talk.
The only thing about me is the way I walk.
I can’t dance, I can’t sing
I’m just standing here selling everything.
But I Love the Dance!
Ironically, though, I enjoy watching others dance. I enjoy attending the ballet. I’ve even purchased front row seats to Michael Flately’s Lord of the Dance three times, so that I could fully experience, albeit vicariously, the classic tale of good versus evil, played out by perfect precision dancing, dramatic original music, colorful costumes, and state-of-the-art production techniques. I am amazed by the virtuosity of the dancers, who, it is estimated, complete 151,200 taps per show. I wonder how they can never seem to miss a beat. By the way, who had the time, energy, and keenness of eyesight to count 151,200 taps?
Indeed, there is indescribable beauty and elegance in watching a dancer reveal her soul through the movements of her body – dancing, as choreographer George Balanchine said, “…not because she wants to – but because she has to.” Nothing is more inspiring than watching people dance with energy, grace, and technical precision.
Yet, something more moving, more stirring occurs when dancers discover that they are not just good dancers because of their individual ability and technique, rather they become incredible dancers because of their passionate, soulish, interconnectedness with the other dancer(s). A dancer may be technically perfect individually, but when a dancer is partnered with someone else, when the dancers rely on each other to express a shared message, something more powerful, more graceful, more expressive, and more magnificent is created.
It is Magical!
Fred Astaire was a wonderful dancer, but when he danced with Ginger Rogers, it was magical! Such dancers are totally and dynamically reliant upon each other for their continued being and existence. The result is an artistic expression far surpassing anything they could create and perform individually. Such dancers have greater individual capacity, effect, and significance because they are mutually and dynamically interdependent upon one another. Simply stated, they are better together! As author Catherine Mowry LaCugna put it:
There is a mutual interanimation, dynamic reciprocity, and unsurpassable beauty between the dancers that can only be understood as an irreducible relational dynamic that simultaneously affirms both individuality and mutuality. [i]
Want to know the truth? (Please don’t tell Sarah) Deep down inside, I long to dance like this. I would dance, if only I could dance like this
Herein lays a profound secret to effective leadership. As the French dramatist, Moliere’ (1622) put it:
All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack at dancing.
Fred Astaire was a wonderful dancer, but when he danced with Ginger Rogers, it was magical! Such dancers are totally and dynamically reliant upon each other for their continued being and existence. The result is an artistic expression far surpassing anything they could create and perform individually. Such dancers have greater individual capacity, effect, and significance because they are mutually and dynamically interdependent upon one another. Simply stated, they are better together! As author Catherine Mowry LaCugna put it:
There is a mutual interanimation, dynamic reciprocity, and unsurpassable beauty between the dancers that can only be understood as an irreducible relational dynamic that simultaneously affirms both individuality and mutuality. [i]
Want to know the truth? (Please don’t tell Sarah) Deep down inside, I long to dance like this. I would dance, if only I could dance like this
Herein lays a profound secret to effective leadership. As the French dramatist, Moliere’ (1622) put it:
All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack at dancing.
To be continued next week …
[i] LaCugna, Catherine Mowry, God for Us, The Trinity and Christian Life, New York, NY, Harper Collins Publishing, 1992, p. 271.
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