Footwork

The Divine L and I went for our second salsa dancing lesson last night. Yes, really. The hour-long session is full of opportunities for fiction... especially the part when we swap partners every two minutes. But the most powerful thing the instructor said yesterday was - surprise surprise - that you've got to get the footwork right - you've got to make the steps second nature - before you can bring some flair into the sway of those hips. Learn to do what everybody else does first, then begin to make it your own.

That reminded me of a Radio 4 Thought For The Day I heard the other week. I was so moved by it, that I was determined to listen to it again on the Net and transcribe it... but it was taken off the site before I could get to it. Essentially, it was a meditation on the celebrations surrounding the Jewish new year, with their emphasis on familiar rituals. In a style more eloquent than I can manage, the Chief Rabbi described how we must be wary of abandoning routines and rules in our culture as they add rhythm and tempo of our lives.

Structure liberates. A cliche, I know... but then, at the moment, it isn't fashionable to acknowledge the power of cliches either.