The Pleasure and the Pain of Tango

               Inquisition is a natural phenomenon.  So is our reaction to it in other people, we are naturally inclined to provide an answer or at least join in the search.  This is an act of compassion. 

               People inquire because there is something missing in their life and its absence causes them discomfort. We find pleasure in helping to ease someone’s pain, even if the act is unpleasant.

               “Why?” is the cry heard most often after a senseless tragedy.

               I once came upon an elderly man having a heart attack. His wife was hysterical. She needed to touch someone and she needed to be held. My mother and my sister were with me and they consoled her with hugs and soft words while I performed CPR.

               There is a primal voice speaking in the Universe. Sometimes it whispers and sometimes it roars. It is both the pain of a question and the pleasure gained from the appropriate response to it. It is the agony of birth and the joy of watching a life grow.

               Tango is a nation’s response to its birthing pain. It is the mechanism through which Argentinians found comfort as their country emerged as a world power in just fifty years. It is the salve that kept them sane through fifty more years of right-wing repression.

               We come to tango hurting. We don’t know why we come but we soon find the answer in the arms of another who is willing to help us find the answer to what we do not know.

              
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.