The Dark Truth about Valentine and Tango

               Valentine’s Day is a happy day born out of a dark circumstance. Somewhere in antiquity, a man gave his life for a woman. It was a noble act but not a singular one. Many men, all around the world, have done the same. This day is a celebration of the intense, driving passion of those men.
               It is a day when every woman wishes to be the object of desire of such a man.

               There is a dark side to our hearts that some people fear. In the sunlight, we tend to have a genial opinion of ourselves. When the sun goes down, however, something stirs in our id. It grows inside of us when we sleep and is an integral theme woven into our dreams. We become aware of it when the lights dim and we feel it trying to take of control our bodies.

               We don’t generally think of this thing favorably, yet it is a part of our psyche that has to be freed from its confines in our minds. It does not ask permission. It’s as big as the stars in the sky and it is hot and cold at the same time. It’s mysterious and volatile, like a swift current in the river or a strong undertow in the tide.

                Some of us try to hide it but it is an expert in revealing itself to the world. 

                Once it's awake, it will head for an exit unless we lock that door. Each time it finds an outlet blocked, it gets faster at finding the next one. Maniacally, it always goes back to the other gates, hoping to find a weak spot.

               If a person succeeds in containing this beast, he/she becomes agitated. This anxious state is caused by the ethereal creature racing around inside them at increasingly faster speeds, continually probing defenses and looking for new ways to escape.

               This is what hell is: a person determined to harness this inner-voice that one day becomes a monster. Stubbornly, because of a flaw in their DNA, they try to suppress it, regardless of the physical toll it extracts until it becomes an indescribable torment.

               Eventually, it metastasizes into a cancer that cannot be let out as it darts around the host’s body, wearing holes in the paths it makes through the stomach, the groin, the nervous system and the brain.

               This unrelenting dog has a name and it is called Passion. Like a dog, it needs to be exercised regularly or it will chew up the furniture when you are not home.

               It needs acknowledgement, proof that it is alive. It wants to be seen, heard, felt, experienced, by another being. It is not satisfied with an existence as an unexpressed idea, it has to make love, it has to move to the music....it has to dance!

               When we dance tango, we give this creature a chance to run free. It is not our enemy, it is a part of us and it helps us to be better dancers, to move not just to the rhythm but to the melody, as well.

               If we keep dancing, we eventually find a balance between the light and the dark sides of ourselves. When we achieve equilibrium, then we finally know peace.

               Happy Valentine’s Day, baby, now go find yourself some peace:-)



For more of the Kayak Hombre, read my book Fear of Intimacy and the Tango Cure or River Tango. Available on Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle.