Friday, December 19, 2008

Underwater: Dancing in the Pools

He was dancing free-form in the warm pool. I met him first this past summer. He comes from near Santa Cruz, has a small computer business, is probably around 60, and was shaped by the 60s. He comes to Harbin with his wife, is a very sweet guy, and free. He's tall, and seems like an oversized, gangly, very friendly, furry, white-long-hair dog. His plump wife was carrying a blue, Unitarian Universalist water bottle in the warm pool. He seemed like he would go readily to a dancing mode, wherever. His freedom of spirit was inspiring. Hippie-like, without regard to who is around, and completely inoffensively, he danced. He was listening not to the 'code' of norms in modernity, but to the 'music' of counterculture ~ doing what he wanted, happily. He started dancing with me in the pools, in a friendly way, hand-to-hand and we explored this free-form water dancing together ~ how fun and inspiring. Later I saw him and his wife, naked, embracing fully and affectionately in the pools. It made me wonder about coming back to UC Berkeley, where I'm based, and just dancing happily around the campus. Why isn't anyone doing this now, whereas a lot of people would have done this in the 1960s? So, why not do it . . . sounds good.

Back to the Harbin pools, in a week or so . .

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