how i learned to dance

in elementary school gym class they taught us jive step about the same time i learned i bought some michael jordan shoes to join the basketball team
somehow between episodes of rap city and the fresh prince of bel air i learned to do the running man
i think i was preparing for my first urban barn dance in which i could parade my wares...

but when i was 15, actually on my 16th birthday i went to see a music festival at thunderbird stadium
in which the headlining act was the tragically hip
it was my first major mushroom experience in which we sat glued to the hillside and experienced the myriad of psychedelic effects
from tuning in to others, or feeling like i was a tree, deeply rooted in this earth,
to inner visions of bubbles conglomerating on the surface of a universe-like space that explained how reality is achieved
but then i awoke from the dream
sobered up
and realized the headline act was about to start
well from my seeming static vantage point for that afternoon i spied a late arrival
a short haired, jean-wearing cool chick looking somewhat ani difranco'esque but i hadn't encountered her yet
a real fairy in jeans and aviator glasses
she showed up just for the tragically hip
and stood in her own space at the back of the grass field in the stadium
she was calm, cool... probably smoking a cigarette or joint
i couldn't help but notice her presence
yet to others she was invisible

and then when the music began and gord downey and crew lit up the stadium with dischordian rock
she began to absorb the sound
and her body began to move so abruptly and yet so gentle
she was fighting and yet dancing
she was a dancing dreamer
who came to show her wares
i and caught a glimpse of her magic
and was forever bound to bestow its beauty upon others

i look for her at every show i go to
and sometimes i know that i am her
and it's my fucking job, my universal responsibilty to dance like that,
fully and completely.

through our dancing
and our dreaming
we change the world