Tango Can Save The World

               At a milonga, a place where tango is danced, it is not polite to pass another couple while dancing. This is an important custom to observe because conforming to it teaches us a lot about how we should conduct our lives.

               As we move around the room together, as a couple in a crowd, synchronicity becomes a challenge. A pair of dancers in front of us slows down for whatever reason, to embellish or as a response to traffic before them. This is a moment for us to work on a different set of skills: moving to the music without advancing forward.

               When we do this, we become like birds in flight or fish in a school. Collectively, we achieve natural synchronicity. This is one of the greatest benefits of tango: it helps us to realize that we are part of a group and that we must move together and not alone.

               Now, turn off the music and apply this concept to ordinary living, where the general cacophony of sounds is the music to which we must dance. An obstacle is placed before us, be it an orphaned animal or a person in need of assistance; this is our chance to hone a different set of life skills, to prove who we are: callous participants bypassing the couple in front of us, or compassionate human beings who stop and care for someone, or something, that needs our attention.

               In the 21^st Century, we are overwhelmed by calls for help because we have access to so much information. It is easy to become inured to everything…but don’t let that happen. If you just work on the obstacles you encounter, each and every day, the rest of the problems will take care of themselves.

             

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.