Yesterday was an annual Associated women of Harding event in Memphis, called the “Pie auction.” It is a fund raiser for something or another, I went last year it was pretty exciting I ate a lot of pie and chili. There is a small expectation for me to go because I am part of the Student Association at Harding Grad school. This year when it came about and they said, “are you going to the pie auction?” I had to reply with, “no I already had plans.” In which they reply, “Oh, what are you doing?” and to that I respond, “Going dancing.”
People often tell me I need to exercise, the problem with exercise is that unless there is a specific goal, like, currently I am training to go backpacking so I do some stuff every day, but if there is no tangible goal then there is no motivation to me. In December I will begin my regiment of running again so I can run a 5K in March. So people tell me, “find a sport you like.” Problem is, the sport they are always talking about is Basketball, or Racket Ball, or Mountain Biking (which I don’t have the equipment for). It always shocked me that I currently have friends who go play at an undisclosed location in Memphis every Tuesday night for a few hours just because they like it, I went once hated it. Some guys love it so much they go to the “precinct.” They put up a dozen basketball courts by the police precinct, or at least one of them. They play during the summer and warm enough months all night and all day without stop. There would be games going on at 2:00 in the morning some nights. My buddy Andy (in Searcy) used to go play “pick up” games, and I just never understood. Of course I never understood because I don’t really care of it.
So I danced for three and a half hours on Saturday night. I have written before that I have gotten into swing dancing. I absolutely love it. I am getting good enough to actually enjoy it without having to think too much about it. I spent the entire night doing one kind of dance, it just so happened I could throw in enough natural spins and tuck turns to shake it up. The “New Memphis Hep Cats” played the dance there were probably 100 people there, some were ballroom type folks, I don’t have a problem with them, but I ran into them often enough (. I actually danced until my legs began to hurt and I was completely out of breath. I was drinking enough water to swim in and sweating like… hmm need a good simile… like all the men in my family sweat, of course no reason to be self conscience because everyone else if they don’t currently, will sweat heavily if they dance a lot.
Anyway this is a long post to tell you how much I have really enjoyed this, I found a type of exercise that really jives with me, I guess it must be all those years of Spring Sing. At the end of each song near the end of the last thirty minutes I felt like my legs were going to give in, but something drove me… then I understood why my old roommate would spend hours playing basketball with people he didn’t know…
So I am a seminary student in the Bible belt at a somewhat evangelical school. I turned down a pie auction where there would be no single women that weren’t widowed, and you know what… it was all worth it. I don’t think I have had that much fun in years.
