July
31, 2013
Dear
Pat,
I
know I was going to quit writing you every day back when the legislative
session ended, but as the old saying goes, "the hits just keep on
coming"! I have been asking your help with several things over the last
month, from whether to wash my hair (I did) to what fruit to buy (cherries) to
how to plan for my overload of classes this fall (still working on it). But I
just saw this video that CNN posted titled "House Dances with Joy Over
Their Accomplishments". At last I think I have finally hit on something I
can do to help you out when the house returns to work in Raleigh next spring.
I
saw in the video that you had a woman playing the fiddle and there were a
couple of house members dancing. I didn't recognize them, so I don't know where
they are from, but I really don't think they looked like they were from North
Carolina! The fiddler, too, was wearing a pretty fancy dress, so I wonder if
she actually considers herself a "violin" player. I say that not only
because of the dress, but because she didn't really play in a true bluegrass or
old-time style.
Anyway,
back to my point. I think that having a dance is a great idea and it's
something that people have historically gotten together and done after a long
hard day - or week - of work. Did you know that in addition to teaching at one
of our state universities, I also can teach people how to square dance and clog
dance? I am positive I could help the entire legislature be able to enjoy some
good North Carolina music and dance! If we got a big enough space, without all
the chairs and tables in the way, we could all dance together. But even where
they were, everyone could get up and dance by their seats. I think the first
lesson would be to help people clap on the beat, rather than just randomly
clapping.
As
glad as I was to see those two people dancing, I was a little concerned about
whether or not they had really done enough work so that they could really enjoy
their dancing. Maybe that's why no one else was up? Did they realize that they
really had more work to do? The article posted with the video made some
reference to Nero. You know, I took a history class in college where we read a
text about Nero. The class was "The Life and Times of Jesus". From
what I remember, Nero was a very important governor (just like you!) who set
things up so that it was a very comfortable life for him and for his friends. I
can't remember all the details, but I don't think it turned out so well for
him, even though him and his friends were dancing and playing their fiddles at
the time. Jesus, who was living at the same time, though, was gathering lots of
followers around him who really wanted to hear what he had to say about helping
the poor (since they were the poor) and making sure that everyone had enough.
One of Jesus's big ideas was that everyone should love everyone else, no matter
what! And, you show your love by helping out people who need help! Nero didn't
get it, though. Still, it seems that we have almost as many followers of Nero
as we do of Jesus these days.
Anyway,
if you are interested in having your legislature work together, just get in
touch with me and we can set up a square dance for the start of the next
session. I have to warn you, though. The first thing we'll do is all hold hands
in a circle and circle to the left. I don't know if this legislature can go
left. That could be a problem.
Looking
forward to hearing from you,
Nancy
No comments:
Post a Comment