Barefoot And Pregnant

Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.  ~Ruth 3:7

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband...For it is better to marry than to burn with passion ~1 Corinthians 7: 2, 9 

I confess, I adore the Royal Society of Arts RSAnimates.  They're these cute little animated lectures that tackle fabulously large and beautiful ideas.  I don't always agree with them, but they always get me thinking.  The other day, I watched one called The Empathic Civilisation, which asserted that when we watch others experiencing various bits of life, our brains produce the same sort of wave patterns they would produce if were having the experiences of these other people - and not just watching them.

Now, I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but it got me thinking about how the cultures that we live in impose limits on the actual personhood of individuals.  For example, I consider dance fundamental to my personhood.  I consider it only one step away from the basic necessities of life. 

However, I live in an area of the country dominated by a particular religious group that historically believed dance was a sinful activity, and so I haven't gone dancing in a long, long time.  Where would I go?  The dance clubs that have sprung up in today's more tolerant paradigm still carry with them the taint of wickedness; dance is still defined as sexual in some more potent way than every other thing we do.  As far as I can tell, very few if any of the folks in the clubs here have ever danced for the pure joy of living, for the love of great music, for the embodiment of the story of the beat.

And the weird thing is that now even I feel stiff and ashamed to dance - and I competed in state dance competitions!

Why do I feel ashamed?  Well, I think it's because my brain hasn't seen anyone dancing for joy in years, but it has seen people dancing, let's be honest, as a type of advertisement for sex.

(I don't own a television so I rarely watch music videos, but I do think Beyonce often dances for the joy of it - which of course, does not negate sexuality.)