blackbird

there are 26 people in my ballroom dance class: 13 guys and 13 girls. it's very convenient that way. occasionally, someone will be gone and so one person will have to rotate out every now and then so that no one is without a partner for the entire time.

today, there we four girls missing, meaning that four guys had to sit out. when it was my turn to be out, i sat on the side and watched everyone else and saw two things.

the first was that everyone was messing up a little, stepping on feet, bumping into other couples, getting off rhythm, or simply forgetting what comes next. i'd never really noticed that. usually, i'm focused on what i'm doing--trying to remember what comes next in the sequence or else deciding what step to do next and how to lead into it--and really don't pay much attention to the other couples. so it was nice to see that i'm not the clumsiest guy out there. in fact, i think i'm one of the better ones (this is my third dance class and i am a dozen years older than most people in there.)

the second was that everyone was laughing (except for that one kid sitting next to me, who seems to have a perpetual sour look on his face.) everyone was messing up, but they were smiling and joking with each other and just plain having fun as they were working to figure it out.

everyone was in there because they wanted to learn to dance and have fun.
there's something really great about that.