Makes me want to dance

Why I never learned to dance as a kid I can't quite understand. I attended all the high school and college dances, and often had dates with girls who were really good dancers. But learning to dance just never made it to the top of my priority list.

Spending 25 years as a Baptist preacher doesn't do much to help ones ability to "bust a move" either. Generations prior to mine saw dancing as evil and giving an opportunity to temptation. There are hundreds of really bad jokes like: "Can Baptists dance? -- Some can, some can't" and "why can't Baptists make love standing up? Someone might think they are dancing."

A career change now has me making rods professionally. For a living. Each morning I enjoy a coupla cups of coffee, check my email and forum posts, and head to the workshop. The shop radio is permanently tuned to NPR where I get my fill of news and talk, and jazz and classical music. I have even become a huge fan of opera from listening to the Saturday afternoon Met broadcasts.

One day last week I caught the Bealle Street Caravan on NPR which typically focuses on Memphis blues music. Though I wasn't really paying attention I noticed several of the musical selections were Motown hits from my childhood and youth. As I listened to "I've got sunshine.... on a cloudy day..." my hips started swaying, my shoulders started shaking, and my feet slid back and forth beside the planing bench. Before I realized what was happening, I was singing along and dancing back and forth as I planed bamboo, wishing I really knew how to move. No one was watching, and I'm glad. My twenty-two year old daughter, who dances really well, would have been mortified.

It sure is nice to love what you are doing so much that it makes you want to dance. Even if you're an old retired Baptist preacher. Even nicer is the freedom to go right ahead and dance when you feel like it.

I wish for all of you a job that makes you want to dance.