dance patterns

[heron]

Mods, feel free to remove this thread if it gets weird.

Yesterday I was listening to mid-1900’s blues. Champion Jack Dupree.

At night I had a dream where I knew African-American girls in the 9-11 range were leading younger boys and girls in dance patterns, and they moved together with fluidity, as though their bodies were loose Gumbies. All I saw was lines, following contours of outer legs, as though drawn quickly with a thick pen.

In my mind I knew they held hands or moved with such synchronization it was as though they were one net, shifting together voluntarily like the liquefy tool in Photoshop. They were confident, and the atmosphere was happy and musical, light… but I suspected the patterned movement was about meeting others’ expectations, like black entertainers went through in earlier American stages. Acknowledging some sort of hold over them.

I didn’t know if I was given this to pray for people who are still impacted by this… it seemed slightly like a memory. Or to pray over trends that are still influenced. Or if maybe I was feeling guilty for enjoying something I knew was probably exploiting people.

There was some swaying, moving as a fluid group like African dance and song. I did not actually see that they were African-American, but knew it. All colors were fresh and light… hints of turquoise and yellow, if any.

Checking the news, I suspect God is prompting us to pray over this situation.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/93454544.html

Lord, don't let it lead to further division. Bring harmony in the country, and foresight over everyone's reactions. Guide the administrators -- school board, teachers, funding organizations, government reps -- in their decisions. Teach the kids and parents how to manage their emotions constructively. Bring continued healing. Guide how funds are allocated.

Bring them comfort.

Also show us if other things need attention and prayer.

 

[Firewater]

Amen

I am reminded of Luke 7:31-35:
31"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
" 'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.' 33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' 34The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' 35But wisdom is proved right by all her children."

A deep conviction or call from God such as what Jesus & John the Baptist had is sometimes required to break a mould. I guess this could come from someone such as Martin Luther King internally, or from a William Wilberforce externally. Maybe each organisation needs people or children whose hearts are painted with the same brush.

Lord raise them up, give them conviction & a voice we pray. And use them to let justice & righteousness flow like a river. Amen.

 

[heron]

Thank you. I am having a very emotional morning spiritually, relating children to legacy. What impact we have in what we do.

I heard AJCroce on online radio, and was startled -- who's that. I used to love Jim Croce's music. Father and son.

Jim's music paved the way for his son.

Apparently "Time in a Bottle" was written when AJ was in vitro. Jim died shortly after.

(Never seems to be enough time...you're the one I want to go through time with.)

According to the bio, AJ focused on music when he was stuck home several years with a brain tumor as a kid.

Sometimes we don't understand what we are doing in life, what our impact is. And then we see our children and students pick up the ball and run with it. We forget they will do that.

Our country (US) has such a history of struggle to bring equity among groups of people. A lot of people suffered to pave the way for the generation we have now. They were probably wondering what good they were doing, why God was allowing them to suffer.

But now we can see it play out in their children.

Now a new group of young people has been put in the spotlight, and is expected to handle a situation in a historical way.

Children taking leadership, bringing their own talents into the world.

 

[JWNEWMAN]

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” Isaiah 11:6

Brought this scripture to mind.

Also:

(18:3) "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 18:5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

[heron]

Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.


18:3 Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

18:5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Very fitting, thank you for adding scriptures.

Without reading the description, I watched the movie Something the Lord Made yesterday. It followed a similar line of thinking, and also included the racism topic.

It seems God is continuing some themes with me-- of continuing work despite injustices, staying in the dance pattern, weaving and flowing with the same dance others are in. Praying over racist attitudes and injustices.

Also finding the underdogs and proactively seeking out what they need... not allowing them to stay subservient to attitude patterns.

 

[heron]

Maybe each organisation needs people or children whose hearts are painted with the same brush.

In the movie, the under-recognized person chose to continue influential work, despite low pay and unfair treatment. He saw the bigger picture, and valued the activity he was invited to be involved in.
Often I think of independence as the easier solution, but in the dream (and movie), the woven pattern was beautiful and also flexible. When one person moved, the others moved along with them... so the teamwork was not as stifling as one would guess. Painting with the same brush. Synergy.

 

[ChildOfGod97]

Interesting tie in with the article.

Early blues (and jazz) I see as separate from the early twentieth century prejudice that so deeply effected african-americans (and Jews) in the entertainment industry. A way out of cultural muzzles.

Body movement as metaphor for the psychological-spiritual (there is a term): Personally, I am very aware of this, as I find it necessary in analysis of much popular fiction. It is also a mainstay in everyday speech.

Dance which teaches... multiple people operating in tandem... from experience... yet, dance which also is under expectations, not true freedom, but under prejudice and criticism of expectation...

Society moves like this. There are the older generation, who may have traveled a lot and experienced a lot of specific strains, the 40 somethings who are a sort of tap and also at the top of their game, and then the younger generation who move in.

People communicate socially a lot more then they are consciously aware of.

Communication is also rarely a word, or a phrase, or something of this nature... but a daily, routine interaction and the full conglomeration of interaction.

People gather together in groups: subculture, corporations, field & trade communities... and each group has its' own dance which continues all along, as generations move down the line, communicating their specific experience not unlike honey bees in a dance.

I was watching "Superhuman" the other day and struck by a research doctor who was examining a man who had conditioned himself against the extreme cold. The doctor said very little but I was quietly amused by the very little he said, how he was very cautious yet as exact as possible in his conclusions. He was cognizant of the camera which showed he had a lot of previous experience in publishing reports and facing the criticism that comes from doing so.

Likewise, studying the making of the atomic bomb not long ago, it was fascinating to see how so many diverse physicists - many of whom I had studied separately since a child - worked together across countries as a group... how their various personalities melded together even when they seemed not to.

Criticism has a powerful social effect. Shunning has a powerful social effect. Praise has a powerful social effect. Subcultural bias creates social reactions which are predictable, yet creative in substance (ultimately).

"Bias" here not as blindness which is how I typically mean it, but as unconsciously hardened experience. That is, the reaction is unconscious, not conscious, so it is blind in that manner.

Having worked pizza delivery, I learned how to time things. One keeps an internal clock, one has a map, one has target goals. Factory work teaches one to work fast and efficiently with one's hands. (Line work, anyway.)

One can break apart the individual dancers, dissect their movements, copy them, but can miss the bigger picture if a tree is isolated from the forest. Perhaps it can be like attempting to study the dance of a bee without consideration of the hive.

Much of what people learn in life experience, they are not always able to consciously put down on paper: and paper itself is not good enough to convey the message. The emphasis where needed -- which is learned from hard won experience.

 

[Firewater]

Some nice meat there. Well done everyone.

 

[ChildOfGod97]

On the other replies:

What I saw in it.

 

[BobW188]

Since this thread is still going on, I'll toss in that this dream calls up recollection of one I had back in the Summer of '86, a few months into my log-keeping.

I am in the lounge of some sort of rehab facility when I hear music, and turn to see a symphony playing the final movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, then and now a favorite of mine that always calls up afternoons in the sailplane in a bright blue sky, prairie below, wheeling and soaring and spiralling in the occasional thermal. Perhaps it is a rehearsal, the ladies (it's an all-female orchestra) being in workaday clothes, not concert dress.

What's interesting is the conductor. She does not stay on the podium but, while wielding the baton, walks among the musicians, exxhanging a word with one or another, perhaps turning a page here and there for those who'd find it difficult to take a hand off their instrument. An absolutely stunning performence! My spirits go from deep depression to elation faster than that one thermal went from 3,000 to 8,000 feet, not just because of the music but also that lady's style!

Siomething I noticed in my choir and chorale days applies, I expect, as much to dancing. There are things I truly enjoyed. First, of course, was giving a good performence of stuff I liked. The other was finding I could give an equally good performence of a piece I didn't care for, perhaps actually disliked. Call it a sense of competence. Whether I liked it or not, I could do the piece well.

(Thrown out strictly for what it's worth.)