Blog 3408 – 03.03.2025

Sit It Out or Dance? I Hope You Dance!

One of the great love of my life, that sadly like so many, didn’t work out right, recently asked me after I shared with her one of my karaoke versions of one my favorite country songs, The Dance by Garth Brooks, “Why, did we never dance?” my reply was, “Because we were in a cult that taught against dancing and anything fun like going to the movies.”

I met this particular great love at Bible College. We dated and later married while still in college. The marriage only lasted three and a half years. In a music class at that Bible College conducted by the wife of the President and Founder of the college, I recall teacher saying, “We need to steer clear, young people, of music that has that jungle beat.” On the contrary, Sister, I say quoting a favorite rock anthem, “Give me the beat, Boys, that frees my soul, let me get lost in your Rock ‘n Roll.”

Rock ‘n roll, is a term that has it’s origins in the Jazz Age of the nineteen-twenties when rhythm and blues singers used it as a euphemism for the sex act, what some today might refer to as the horizontal mambo. Great dancer Fred Astaire is purported to have said that dancing is merely making love standing up.

Like the three Greek words for love I can think of three types of dancing: group or family dancing typified by square dancing, reels, and line dancing, all variation the minuet, a lot of native group dancing falls into this category including the more modern go native dances like disco and rave dancing; then there is religious dancing like it says of King David, he rejoiced and danced before the Lord, lastly there is the more intimate slow dancing like the waltz, the mambo, the tango – and also dirty dancing which is kind of like the way someone defined a kiss as an upper persuasion for a lower invasion. This third type of dancing is foreplay for forays into more private and intimate dance moves. How shall I say it? This is the way babies are made.

That cult that I mentioned in the beginning also definitely taught against dancing. One of their favorite mottoes or wall samplers was, “The family that prays together, stays together.” But I offer a different take on that as families and couples that pray together are often as likely as others to fuss and fight, to break-up, and to leave one another. I say families and couples that dance together have a greater chance of stay closer and of stay together longer than those who only pray. So as today’s song says, by all means, “If you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Lee Ann Womack – I Hope You Dance (Official Music Video)

Lee Ann Womack – I Hope You Dance (Official Music Video)

Preface (or excuse to be even more wordy)

I bought the new summer weight cowboy hat that I wore Friday for Go Texan Day at a gas station on my weekly trip to some property that I own near Bon Wier, Texas. The lady who sold me the hat said and her fellow employee agreed that it was customary in those parts for anyone buying a cowboy hat to put it on and dance their way out of the store. Not being one to defy local customs I complied with a smile on my face, willing choosing to be part of the joke. I placed the hat on my head, tipped it briefly to the ladies and danced out of the store. I think we made each other’s day.

Like The Bible and Huey Lewis I believe in the power of love, but I also believe in the power of dance in all its wonderful forms.