Well, I had another topic in mind all week, but the last couple of days have been a whirlwind in more ways than one, so I’m going to take a slight detour from our regularly scheduled programming and save that particular musing for next week.

Instead, I invite you to tune into the various fields of energy that you inhabit. Let’s refer to them as ‘bubbles’. If you’re like me, there are a number of overlapping layers, starting with your personal relationships, family, and members of your household. That comprises your most intimate bubble.

Then you might have a work, school, or professional bubble. Shared with people you often interact with face-to-face, and know on a first name basis.

Beyond or equal to that, you could be part of a dance or fitness community, possibly even as a leader. When you ‘drop in’ to the energy of the group you share common ‘vibe’ or mood that can shift like the weather on any given day.

Some bubbles manifest better when people are physically gathered together, others can function quite well at a distance. The pandemic taught us all how to extend and blur those lines.

Enthusiasts for a certain type of art, craft, music, or practice may spend most of their time engaged with the subject on their own, or sharing and helping one another online, while occasionally coming together in person.

(That describes my past several days. In general I’m adjacent to the world of hand-cut wooden jigsaw makers, of which my sweetheart Isabelle is one of the leaders in the field. We just spent the weekend in Rochester, NY at the Puzzle Parley, the bi-annual conference for cutters and collectors, and I found myself very much immersed in this fascinating bubble.)

Zooming out further, there’s a field of energy to your town, your region, and the country you live in. If you’re a citizen in a well-functioning democracy, the person that the ‘body-politic’ chooses as a leader makes a great deal of difference to the overall tenor of society.

A few weeks back I wrote about countering anxiety, external fears, and existential dread with personal creativity. A worthy defense to maintain a positive state-of-mind when events beyond our control seem to be spiraling out of control.

Our nation’s bubble seemed as if it had reached an impasse. Fellow citizens from my closest friends to distant luminaries were in a quandary about the path forward. Things were feeling dire.

Then on Sunday, like a flash, a selfless decision was made on high, and the torch was passed from one generation to the next. Suddenly a well-loved and elderly leader who had admittedly became wobbly set aside his ego for the betterment of his country and passed the torch to his passionate and formidable protégé.

Within hours of the news settling in, the ramifications became clear. You could feel the shift in energy like a tidal wave rolling across the land. Fear was washed aside with a flood of hope. Overnight, the tables were turned and it felt as if everything changed.

Women, people of color, and the most-marginalized members of our body-politic will now have a leader to rally behind who mirrors their experience and resonates with their roots.

Average citizens like me who would like their kids and grandkids to grow up in a just, peaceful, and healthy world have something to pin our hopes on.

Older folks can look to a role model in a man who had the humility and wisdom to engineer a graceful release from responsibilities and ensure his legacy.

And the most important constituency of all, the younger generation who will pick up where we leave off, have someone to look to who represents hope for the future.

So the field of energy has shifted, and we’ve got a long way to go. It’s on us to put our best foot forward in this great dance we call democracy and exercise our privilege to be heard as citizens.

I’ll leave you with the words of Naomi Klein and trust you’ll be well till next week. “Democracy is not just the right to vote, it is the right to live in dignity.”

Much love in your bubble till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine