"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality." -MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
“You think you’ve got it bad? My wife fought with a bear and won!”
-Pop Tory
On a sunny afternoon in Yellowstone National Park, my grandma and her aunt decided to go on a walk to look for bears. Pop Tory and Grandma ‘Moine stayed back and got settled- or tried to. I don’t know how much time had passed when Grandma and Aunt Vannas got back from their walk, but when they did there was a large group of people surrounding their car. Someone said, “She’s fighting with a bear!” and that’s when they saw her. Grandma ‘Moine was stubbornly clutching a package of bacon while a bear pulled furiously at the other end. It didn’t look good for Grandma ‘Moine, but she wasn’t about to give up either. Finally she yanked the bacon away, and threw it into the trunk of her car. The bear went for the bacon and Grandma ‘Moine slammed the trunk on it’s paws. It yelped in pain, pulled back it’s paws, and ran away.
Now, this is a true story, and I’m told that park rangers used it for years to come as an example of what NOT to do when encountering a bear. Pop Tory used the story for years too. I don’t think he and Grandma ‘Moine fought much.
My great, great grandmother died dancing- sort of. One night while out dancing- just after a dance with her dance partner Mr. Palmer- she collapsed as she was leaving the dance floor and never got up. It was the dancing that killed her. Her name was Josephine and she was 74 when she danced her way into heaven. It’s funny how you can feel such a strong connection with someone you’ve never met. Grandma Josephine loved to dance. Doctors told her that if she continued dancing it would kill her, obviously she didn’t let that stop her. She died happily from doing one of the things she loved.
Dancing has always been a great release for me. I don’t claim to be good at it. To me, dancing is the act of letting go completely, not caring about who’s watching, feeling the music and moving. That’s true dancing. It’s an art form like no other. It can also be pretty funny when you dance in a swimming pool. (I tried the other night, and we laughed so hard our muscles hurt from smiling)
I’ve been stressing today, over meaningless little things. So tonight I’ll take a cue from grandma and have some fun. I’ll be dancin’ with myself, letting go of my worries, and thinking of her.
