The Dance of Life

I was at the Bar Mitzvah of my friend’s son three weekends ago. From my table I watched the entertainment crew—comprised of a Master of Ceremonies and one young man and two cute young women-- as they kept the kids and teenagers energized on the dance floor all day. I took note of how at the start the floor was bare and the dance team had to coax the teens out and urge them to dance too. As soon as the teens were dancing along with them, there was fun being had, but they had still had to urge them to come out and dance; the teens still needed to be reminded that it was more fun on the dance floor than at their seats.

The dancers have to get others to move, get them dancing, get them to start having fun. They’re always smiling, always looking cheerful, always looking like they’re having fun—even when they’re not. Sometimes it’s an act, but they couldn’t pull it off if it wasn’t from their heart. Someone has to remind the others that it’s fun so that the others will dance too. So it is with life as well, and it reminded me of how I post inspirational message when I’m inspired, and sometimes when I’m not. I like to remind others to shine and urge them to shine too. Sometimes, I do it to remind myself of that. Quite often, I need it more than they do.
Later I wound up talking to one of the dancers. She was a young kid, maybe 20 years old, maybe 19. I joked with her that after dancing on the job all day the last thing she’d do at night with her friend was go out dancing. She joked back that after dancing all day the only thing she did for fun was sleep. I told her that she reminded me of the Energizer Bunny; she kept going and going and going. She replied that she loved doing what she did, that’s what kept her going; it was fun, so it was easy to stay energized for that long. Then she high-fived me and went back to work leading the kids into more dancing.
I’ll say this about her, that girl had it, she had the inner shine.