On Beauty

Yesterday beauty prevailed as the finalists in the exquisite Dancing Classrooms Philly took the stage at the Merriam Theater. They wore scarves for skirts and sequins on their faces, glittered shoes and borrowed suits, flowers in their hair, red lips, gentlemanly expressions, and when the music played they danced.

Some of them take home gold medals, some of them silver or bronze, and maybe they will wear them about their necks for a day or slip them inside a jewelry box or over the knob of a door, or perhaps there is already a medal hanging from the bough of a dancer's Christmas tree. But we all know that this was never about winning or losing. It was always about the embrace. About the way we touch one another.

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Gratitudes

Well, the tree is in the house now, and it shimmers. Gift boxes are tumbling from my closet shelves (there are only a few shelves, and it's not a big closet). The cards are at the printer. I have my hostess gifts and the nice lady at the department store wrapped them so that they'll actually LOOK like hostess gifts. Tonight I'll dance that cha-cha and may or may not fall off my three-inch heels, but whatever happens, it will have already happened by this time tomorrow.

(If only I could finish that mega-gigantic corporate web site for my client. If only they'd stop adding sections!)

So today as I sit down at my computer and think about the world outside my door (fog enwrapped, at the moment), I think about how grateful I am for the conversations I've found myself having with those of you who have generously spent some time hanging out on this blog. You just don't know what is going to happen when you open yourself up to the world, and I've had luck on my side. What is the real world? It's an obvious question. For sure my real world includes you.

Tomorrow I'm off to the finals of that citywide ballroom dancing competition, where the fifth graders of Philadelphia will no doubt put on one heck of one fabulous show. These are stunningly beautiful children (one of my photos of the semi-finals above). If you are anywhere near the Merriam Theater on Philly's Broad Street tomorrow, do yourself the favor of seeing such beauty on the stage.

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