Dancing With Death

by ROB SEIMETZ

In my 34th year of life I feel as if I am entering a sort of twilight stage to it.  This stage I have realized isn’t a cycle to my life but it’s a performance.

This performance is a dance, a dance that climaxes to death….my death.  And in this dance I am playing the role of life (yin) my dance partner is death (yang).  Even though I am life, death always takes the lead in this dance.

This culture denies this dance, this culture can’t dance.  Those of us who relish the dance are said to have a death wish, but really we are excited to assume the role of “life” as we dance with our lead partner “death”.

This culture can’t dance with death because it refuses to acknowledge it is inferior to death as it dances.  It wants death’s role in the dance.  Taking the role of death in this dance was not meant for this culture.  It’s making death’s dance partner, life, off balance.

When dancing with death you must realize as life there’s a give and take to the dance and a push and pull.

As my life span rapidly increases it is now that I understand the older I get the more I feel these pushes and pulls in life.

I push to help others, I push to do the things that make me feel alive, that make me be a competent dance partner with death during our dance.  But it is lately that with pushes come pulls, a job can pull you away from what you push for, acknowledging other’s needs over yours can pull you in other directions, and unexpected life events can also push you down another path or pull you away from another path.

This is the yin and yang of our existence, it’s what makes you feel balanced.  It’s how you dance with death.  One must push to feel the pull and one must pull to feel the push.

Sometimes the dance can get awkward or go on for too long.  Some may say the dance can also be too short.  But what this culture won’t tell you is when the dance is done just right it’s beautiful, and it doesn’t matter how long the dance lasts for.

In order to dance with death you must not make the dance routine.  You must improvise.  You must stop worrying about staring at your feet to see if you are getting the steps right.  You must realize the imperfections of the dance lead to perfections.

The most important things you can do as you dance with death is look into death’s eyes because you are life.  As life when you stare into death’s eyes it is then you let death take the lead and feel the pushes and pulls you need to make in the improvisation of life.

This is what makes the dance with death a beautiful dance and one that feels natural.  It’s the way you end your dance with death gracefully.

Contrary to popular belief, death is the one that tells you when the dance is over but it’s up to you as life on how you choose to dance with it.  Make sure you as life take chances with your dance, and always acknowledge that death is watching you dance as its partner life while you dance with it.

With that being said, they will tell you to “dance like no one is watching.”  Do not listen to them they tell you this out of ignorance.  They don’t realize what we all long to see and that’s the beautiful dance with death.  The beauty we all long for is when life and death dance together and it seems improvised yet effortless and natural.  So make sure you dance like everyone is watching because even if you think no one is watching your dance there is always someone watching…your lead dance partner…death.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/07/dancing-with-death/