online: 12 april 2011 modified: 11, 12 april 2011 11 april 2011 the dance of everyone
city forest
...it's a warm monday by the lawn where 50-100 people are picnicking and playing football and other games... while cyclists and runners and walkers pass by... but to count and describe them in the old names and categories is inherently dull... or uninspiring... so i take another look at what is actuallly happening...
...i try to find new interest in the football game before me in which a half-naked man is teaching young boys the movements of ball control with the feet and legs (and even head)... while hand-use is taboo... and i marvel at this so pervasive skill (as at any)... and think again of the nervous system... and the complexity of only-partly-conscious control behind each and all of our movements... whether recognised as skilful... or not... though i think they all are...
...now the footballers are sitting down to eat... and a middle-aged woman is leading an old man who walks very slowly and deliberately... as if the way he is going is the only one possible... (to the grave one might think)...
...now the older boys are sitting listening to the man who is with them while the younger boys run and play a much wilder game... not of fixed rules and objectives but of unpredictable movements... and chases.. and falls... with the whole body involved all the time...
...and now a woman in blue jeans and top... and medium high heels... clatters by quite speedily... in this scene (or collective playground) in which everyone else seems to be dressed in light clothing and flat shoes... not so much for fashion but for ease of movement... (though sports gear has become an expensive kind of fashion too)...
...now the footballers are gone... they are replaced by ten crows... who are walking as if comprising a single but very mobile organism (or dance troupe) sometimes clustering together and sometimes dispersing... in improvised movement but to unstated rules...
...i guess all the movements i'm trying to see here as a unity (in this microcosm of human and animal movements world wide) could be the starting point or ingredient of any theory or practice of improved ways to organise life... as we hope it can become...
...at which the peace of the place, and the day, is broken by a noisy mini-motorbike that is apparently permitted to ride on these walking paths amidst people and trees...
...yes it's fascinating to detach from one's part in this dance of all the people here today... so as to compare and rethink what it is that we do!...
...though it's difficult to detach from the known purposes of each action to be able to see it as one dance... not as many separate games and sports... or other pastimes of specialists...
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