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Give us a break

I love dancing, it is a fine thing of grace and beauty.

Once upon a time, in an age perhaps more wise than ours, it was understood that an important milestone in a persons life was the pairing of that person with someone of the opposite sex and the desirability for each individual to identify a partner for life and form a mutually sustaining bond.

At intermediate school we were marched into the gym, paired with a member of the opposite sex (please god let me get the girl with blond hair and blue eyes and not the fat girl with warts on her hands) and taught to dance. The teacher would sit at an out of tune upright piano.
"Boys put your right hand on the girls left shoulder, Girls put your left hand on the boys right shoulder etc etc"
Then banging out a waltz in firm voice she'd say
"1-2-3, 2-2-3, 3-2-3, 4-2-3, your head should be facing left Daryl! 3-2-3, 4-2-3"
And so forth.

It sure beat learning about decimal fractions even if your partner turned out to be the girl with warts on her hands and sweaty palms.

This was all to prep us for the Balls and Formals which came later and which were at heart all about finding the one, useful for us as individuals and for society as a whole since for a society to persist it needs new generations to replenish itself.

All forgotten these days and now school balls are not only old fashioned, they are apparently dangerous as well.

Sigh

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