Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Talk About Line Dancing!

Sometimes we human beings are capable of the most sublime vision. Think of the image of one person dancing alone. Now add a partner. Now two or three more. Now see in your mind's eye a hundred people dancing together. Now several hundred.

Now imagine that while those several hundred people are dancing together there are, somewhere nearby, another group dancing. And not that far away, another. Don't you get a sense of the increase in power and connectedness?

On Saturday, June 24th, at 7:00 pm, dancers in seven sites along the Mississippi River--from the headwaters at Lake Itasca to the delta at Plaquemines Parish--will join together in a dance over two thousand miles long! Radio stations in each of the seven cities will simulcast, so that dancers in one place can actually call to, and be heard by, dancers in another. It will be the largest site specific, free dance performance ever.

This just makes me happy. Like the millennial New Years' Eve with its synchronized coverage celebrating midnight as it moved across the globe, the idea of people dancing together along the entire length of the mighty Mississippi fills me with hope. Sure, no one is being fed or clothed. People will be homeless still, and racism and other oppressions will not cease. But what an inspiring manifestation of coming together; what a promise of what's possible when we engage our creativity and ask "why not?" instead of saying "we can't."

For more information on this incredible event, look up One River Mississippi.

In Gassho,

RevWik