El baile de la vida – Dancing without Music or Volition (20230315)

Have you ever been sitting quietly, minding your own business, when you see or feel a group of muscles twitching? They begin a dance to music only they can hear. A jump, a tweak, and rolling cha-cha seem to be my experiences with this phenomenon.

No, I am not going to go into all the medical studies and discoveries on why this occurs, primarily because I am not a doctor and that is not my reason for this post. But also because, while the twitch can be sometimes annoying, it is interesting to watch the rolling waves of muscle acrobatics.

And one group always appears to invite others into the action…a regular muscular dance-off held just for me!

It got me to thinking about metaphors, analogies, and similes, and how the disco movements of my muscles might give me a clue about everyday life.

I am still working on the best metaphor but here are a few thoughts:

  • How I react when I hear music that gets deep into my being, and before I know it, I am tapping my hands and fingers, keeping beat with my feet, and swaying to the intricate melodies playing around me.
  • How my observances and reactions to the world tend to be a dance all on their own. Raised by previous experiences and knowledge gained, stoked by the rush of modern life, and coddled by a personal bias, it becomes easier for me to see how my current set of beliefs have been fostered or disillusioned by all the voices around me and inside of me.
  • How butterflies flit from flower to flower. Aerial acrobatics to a tune only nature can produce.
  • How my heart beats when excited. The gripping 1812 Overture played inside me in a variety of situations and emotions.
  • How car dancing and people smiling inside their cars brings smiles to those who take time to notice.
  • How the twitch of a sleeping baby brings an overwhelming sense of awe.
  • How the dreams of pets cause their legs, paws, and faces to jump to the music of their dreams.
  • How the staccato firing of neurons can cause a spark to occur and a new thought or idea to arise, or a solution to a problem appear.

All due to a movement just barely noticed. A dance of such intricacy which could be easily missed by the single blink of the eye.

Ah…I just felt a muscle twitch.

Time to end this narrative and watch the “El baile de la vida” … the dance of life and to marvel at the diversity of life experiences and the dance twitches that occur all around me.

ENHanced? (20230315)

Strange to have a title like that…it sounds like Bionic Man or one of the Marvel or DC Comic Superheroes.

Of course, none of that is true.

ENHanced. Note the capitalization (yes, it is not a typo).

  • E – Ears
  • N – Nose
  • H – Hair

God seems to have a sense of humor. As we get older, we start to shrink in height (and some gain in girth) but our Ears and Nose continue to grow. I am thankful they do not grow rapidly otherwise we would all look like the cross between Durante and Dumbo the Elephant. And this way, we have some time to get used to the creativeness of our Creator.

I imagine God’s thought process (not to be blasphemous).

“Hey, as they get older, their hearing will start to falter more quickly than other parts. Let’s give man a larger ear so that sounds that used to be observed can still be heard. He will be able to hear that bear or lion or cougar (or grandchildren 😉) sneaking up. And while I’m at it, I may want to increase his olfactory orifice so man can still smell danger (and good foods…and dirty diapers of grandchildren…or his own).”

“Now, what can we do about mankind’s hair. Oh, I know, for men in particular, let’s remove it from his head and have it start to grow excessively from his larger nose and ears, from his back and chest, and other miscellaneous areas. This may protect his sense of hearing and smell…the rest is just for fun. I will wait and see how creative man is about handling his new hairiness.”

I know what you’re thinking…the author is on a rant. Not really.

Just curious about the whys and wherefores of bodily changes as we get older. Of course, there are other parts that become…um, less than before. Like muscles…it’s almost like they go away more and more so that we get closer and closer to the ground. Not quite knuckle-dragging close, but the new stance norm appears to be the letter “C.”

And we won’t even talk about memory…lack therefore or “new stories” invented because the old ones have become mislaid.

Age.

The only game in town for those of us ENHanced by time…