From Sedentary to Docile

I love to dance. Your kids maybe like to participate in school sports? 

But, "Covid".

A few weeks ago, a popular local cover band was playing at the dive bar where I work. A couple of hours (and lots of drinks) in, there was an outbreak of spontaneous dancing. People wanted to enjoy their evening, the music, and the mirth brought about by the consumption of their libations.

I love dancing so, I put down my waitress tray and joined my customers for a moment. The bar tender that night, who is very concerned with the rules as put forth by Maine's Governor, Empress Mills, shut that down as quickly as she could. Or, at least she tried. I obeyed because I was working, but others continued on. At one point, there was caught a man taking pictures of the dancing with a 35 mm Camera from the doorway. Fears of being shut down peeked among my coworkers for several days after.

Two Friday nights ago that same band was playing at another bar that, under normal times, would also be a dance club. I went out with some friends, hoping there would be another spontaneous outbreak of dancing that I could participate in without fear of creating work place trouble. We started the dancing and were politely told to stop. So, we did, and for a time, everyone stayed sedentary.

I looked around at the people sitting at tables on a floor that used to hold bodies moving to beats, joyfully releasing the tensions of life. I looked at the people reservedly swaying in their seats, with an absence of joy on their faces.

As I looked at these joyless, reserved, sedentary people, I felt sick to my stomach and enraged.

Not only has the government told us what risks we can and can not take, not only has the government told us what we must wear on our faces, where we can and can not go, when we can and can not go there, and how we can and can not meet our need for social interaction, but it has also told us what we can and can not do with our bodies in the form of physical exertion not only in dance but also in sports.

And, whether by intent or as an unintended consequence, by so doing the government is creating a sedentary and, I fear, as a matter of cause and effect, docile people. 

Sure, you can walk, jog and run, or ride your bike - except it's getting cold here in Maine - but dance and play sports? Not so much. The latter being activities that are vigorous and aggressive, social and, for many, a release of energy that is healthy and strengthening, not only for the body but the mind and emotions. The former are solitary, sanitary, and controlled - just enough physical activity allowed to say we're still being "healthy", but not enough to allow the people to be strong inside and out.

What is the value to dance and sports? I could go on at length about the particulars of dance and some of you could go on at length about the particulars of sports, but they both take social prowess and both provide a mental/emotional release through the nature of the exertion that is strengthening to the individual in a way walking and bike riding aren't for many who are more aggressive in nature.

It's almost puritanical. I can't help but think of the (appropriately dated) 1984 movie, Footloose. When you know the almost anarchic release of dancing and sports compared to the sedation and sanitation of a society filled with long walks in the wood and pleasant bike rides within the government designated road lines, you may, like me, see only control of the population on a more sinister level.