Strength, Cranes and PhD

 

Go and ballroom dance regardless of your age.It is never too late to learn to ballroom dance whether you are 8 or 88. A lady I know who read my articles on ballroom dance for seniors started to take ballroom dance lessons at age 79.5. Those were her words. She had been depressed because her husband was in a nursing home for 20 years and she needed a social atmosphere to continue to live. She took a few group lessons and this developed into private lessons.

She even had the desire to take from Ron Montez, who is a brilliant former dance champion and now teaches and choreographs dancing for shows and groups. She had so much fun and her energy increased and her life developed into something meaningful.

She credited my articles with instilling in her the desire and the ability to try.What more can a writer desire than to have her articles inspire someone to do something she always dreamed about. .There are many forms of learning and some quite inexpensive. You should try to find a group lesson at a desirable dance studio. The group lessons usually cost about 10-15 dollars per hour and you are mixed in with other people learning to dance. Then if you really can afford it, later on you could take some private lessons meaning you and your partner or you alone with the teacher for one hour. This usually costs different amounts depending in what city you reside. It could be like here in Baltimore, Maryland perhaps 50 dollars per hour or 60 dollars per hour or more or less depending on the locale.

Try it, not only will it stimulate your body, your mind and most of all your soul.

There is a Japanese custom done upon someone getting married. The groom has to make 1001 paper cranes that he folded and this is an act of traditional love which will insure the bride and groom a long life of happiness. I know someone who had to do this before his wedding. He himself is half Japanese and half Caucasian and his bride all Caucasian. The tradition is called Senbazuru.

When I saw the 1001 cranes, I was overwhelmed at other possibilities that these cranes could mean to anyone regardless of their nationality. This could mean a long life no matter how old you are at the present time and this could be encompassing a happy life of doing new things in now moments. I saw these cranes at our very fine dance facility where we have been dancing on Sundays for about ten years now. It is called The Promenade Dance Facility in Baltimore, Maryland. If you are ever in Baltimore, go and see this beautiful studio that looks as if it belongs in Hollywood. California with its delightful interior and fantastic dance floor. Cindy Sumida is the owner and she presents ballroom dancing in its finest appearance with this lovely atmosphere. Her handsome designs in the layout gives one a sense of  a dancing phenomenon.When you are at the Promenade, it is as if you are in a different world and you are away from any problems you have, any health difficulties or even if everything in your life is great, being at the Promenade makes life extremely and pleasantly complete.You are fulfilled while you are there for the two to three hours you are dancing and socializing.

One day last week, #3 grandson of mine, Ethan asked his daddy what phenomenon meant. He had heard it somewhere. He is six and Dad ( my son Jeffrey) told him it meant outstanding. He understood it then. So is the Promenade. Outstanding it is and so is Cindy Sumida who owns it. She makes the new dancer feel unbelievably  wonderful and to us seasoned and older dancers, she makes us feel loved. We love her too for making our hours of dancing so gratifying.

Ballroom dancing for the average person is not what it appears on Dancing With The Stars. That is all non reality. Real reality is real living and real living helps us to be happy in whatever we do. DWTS is pure nonsense because no one in life takes seven hours or so of learning to dance six days a week. We take one hour a week to start and maybe two hours after a few months depending on our money situation which in the present day is not a lot for many folks. So ballroom dancing is a luxury and we have to incorporate it into our budget. So seven hour days with high prices professional dance teachers is out of our realm.

DWTS should not deter new folks to think they cannot dance because these stars earn plenty of money from the sponsors of the show to even enter into the show itself. The longer the amateur stays on the show, the more money he receives.

When we enter the ballroom dance world to learn to dance at any age, we do it for our self confidence and for our happiness and also for our health.

There is a saying that anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It only empties today of its strength. Let us fill our today with strength and tomorrow with more strength and endurance and happiness.Go and ballroom dance for a phenomenon in your life.Other activities can give you a thrill and a shot to your brain stimulation too; and if you find them, attempt them too or in place of ballroom dancing. There are so many privileges we have now in 2011 that I and others did not have growing up in the forties. Take advantage of this beautiful adventure we all have called life.

 

So think of the cranes and give it new meaning even though you are not Asian. Think of having a longer and healthier life if you are active in your mind and body.CBS just interviewed the president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. His school is a top notch and highly thought of college.When he became president, he did not want to allow football to be an enormous presence in his students like it is in many colleges. He chose Chess and other activities to stimulate the kids’ minds beside their book learning. He felt school is for knowledge and football did not belong there.They established there a program for elite students to be involved in and the students were of all nationalities and over ninety percent have graduated this special Meyerhoff program and on their way to obtaining PH.D’s in their specialties or have received them already. One young PHD now who is a professor himself at another college said he did not know what a PHD was before he got in this elite group of students.The president of the UMBC is Freeman A. Hrabowski, the Third. He received his PHD at the extremely young age of twenty-four and now he stimulates, inspires and entices these young folks to be the best they can be and football, a main ingredient of college life is not alive there.What a fantastic and beautiful person Dr. Hrabowski is and imagine the splendid influence he is to all of his students. They adore him and certainly want to emulate his progress in education and in life.He is a special person and the cranes certainly can be a sign of happiness and success to everyone regardless of being born in not such great economic days. I was not raised in a great financial  surrounding, but we were encouraged to be educated, to read and to learn. We did not have many fancy material possessions; but we possessed fantastic, good, intellectual parents and as dad said “ the future was bright because tomorrow was even brighter than today.”

The art of making the most of life was a saying of George Bernard Shaw. How true that is today and yesterday when I was young and starting out.

Anyone at any age can accomplish,acquire and succeed in a new adventure. I call that AAA and I do not mean the American Automobile Association, Triple A. I mean Accomplish, acquire, adventure.That is my triple AAA. I am seventy-seven as of this writing and I sit at my computer and acquire, accomplish and have adventures.Another A could be after you have completed my triple A’s is acknowledging admiration for yourself because you are a PHD of a person. Personable, happy and dignified. What more can anyone ask of their being?