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The
North Pole and the South Pole are different sizes and shapes.
It's just a matter of chance. People will push and pull. So
be flexible, and do the lopsided dance. Bend over, just form
the shoulder, but step it lower. Now the other way bends.
Dip slowly. Slip lowly, irresistibly. It's the lopsided gourd
dance.
It's
in Manhattan, West End Richmond and the Latin Quarter. It's
in Emporia, Peoria and Honolulu. It's in the planets and the
oceans and the distant borders. Everything's lopsided, like
me and you ... and you!
Look
at the organisms, the mannerisms ... all the isms. All that
can be envisioned, spinning to a collision. You've got to
move it, got to use it or you're gonna lose it.
The simple wisdom is the lopsided gourd dance!
words
copyright 1997, J. Ramsey, from Refuge in a Gourd
Commentary:
The gourd shows us the way to be free from cookie cutter
living, trying to live up to an idealized geometric that doesn't
work.
The
natural world shows us what we need to know, as exemplified
by the gourd. Take a look at one of those big, round gourds.
Does it look spherical? Then look closer. Every gourd is unique,
with its own fantastic bumps and blemishes. Every gourd is
a little bit lopsided, and we have to learn from that. The
world is not a sphere, or any ideal symmetrical shape, any
more than the gourd is. Nothing in nature operates like that,
and you need to learn how to break that training.
Here
at Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra, we recommend a simple
regimen of dancing like crazy, every chance you get. Never
mind what the neighbors think. If they're not doing it, you
must show them the way.
The
way of the gourd is the lopsided way. Learn to move in that
manner, or you will be thrown off your feet at every turn.
There are no straight lines, there are no flat surfaces, there
are no geometrical shapes. Imagining that those things really
exist is self-delusional, and your delusions will inevitably
create many bad feelings and lost opportunities, for yourself
and others.
Having
a bad day? Get up and dance, ... or just dance. The ancients
knew this. Now it must be relearned, one person at a time.
Find a way to dance lopsidedly, and you will be free.
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