Sciencism

As I was driving home one night after a dance, my mind wandered and Science enlightened me. I must have been a bit annoyed that my good friend E*, who considers me her brother and who I consider as a sister, changed her mind about coming to the dance at the last minute. I mean of course that she didn't want to come. She was probably with her friends, and was comfortable at home.

So I wondered. Why don't young people like folk dancing? I couldn't really think of a good reason. Then Science nudged my mind a bit and I recalled a wikipedia article on Paris Hilton that I had read long ago. The article said that Paris Hilton was famous, despite the fact that she had accomplished absolutely nothing of renown. Then why was she famous? She was  "famous for being famous". Which I thought was pretty funny.

Another time, Cheryl, Paul (Cheryl's friend from contra-dancing) and I were driving to the tuesday contra-dance in Paul's car (Paul was driving). It was the first regular contra-dance of the year. We were discussing some interesting topics including Toyota, speed limits, etc. And somehow we wound up on the topic of the Mona Lisa. We were all in agreement that there was nothing spectacularly special about the Mona Lisa. It was a painting of a lady and that was pretty much all. Paul thought that all the fame could have been due to all the conspiracy theories surrounding Leonardo Da Vinci and the painting. Perhaps. I jokingly said that the Mona Lisa was famous for being famous and little else.

What's all this got to do with dancing? You see, these days, folk dancing is dominated by older people. In most of the classes and workshops I attend, I'm often the youngest one there at 32. What is the reason for this? There's nothing about folk dancing that requires one to be old. In fact, many of them are quite energetic and the dances are often clever, like in scottish dancing. After a lot of analysis, Science enlightened me.

The reason that young people don't do folk dance, is because young people don't do folk dance.

Now, to most of you this might mean nothing special, but there's a lot of wisdom hidden in that one sentence. "Because young people don't do folk dance" is a reason. It's a justification for some action or (in this case) inaction. And yet... what a stupid reason! It's the classic sheep mentality: copying what everyone else is doing. Being too afraid of taking the path less travelled. Let me tell you this: don't spend too much time with your friends in your comfort zone. You will lose the chance to enrich your life.

Folks, it's a chicken and egg situation. It's the principle of critical mass. Someone has to be big enough to think "Ok, i'll be the damn egg that hatches the first chicken", or "I'll be the damn hen that lays the first egg". Or I'll get up and dance.