Dancing Queen

An image that remained with me today. I was at my volunteer job at Cancer Research, and because there were hardly any volunteers there today I was stuck behind the cash register all afternoon. Not my favourite, but you get to chat with nice customers on occasion, and I like that. 

A Kylie Minogue Best of CD was playing, the third time already, because the player in the back was so blocked in by bags and donations that all we could manage was to reach the play button, not any other CDs to change the music. But really, there is only so much Kylie I can take, and at some point I dug a way through just to get some other music, The Beatles, incidentally, and half of the customers in the shop sang along, including me... But that is another story.

So, back to Kylie. An older lady came in with her... daughter? Niece? Friend? A younger woman anyway, and handicapped, blind and she had some speech impediment as well. Anyway, the younger one obviously loved Kylie, and smiled all over, not just her mouth, she smiled with her entire body, if you understand what I mean. And she started dancing, on the spot but nonetheless, shaking to the rhythm. It's hard to describe, but it was just such a beautiful sight, everything about her was entirely happy and engrossed in the music, and without any notion of self-consciousness or inhibition. She simply enjoyed the moment, and everybody who saw her couldn't help but smile with her. 

I envy her. I remember a time when music could sweep me away and become my entire world for the moment, but I've always been more on the shy side, and just dancing all by myself in a shop, I couldn't have done it. Sing along quietly, yes, possibly audible to people near me, and wriggle a foot or even a leg, ok, but I wouldn't have had her courage. 

She told me later that she was afraid of walking around by herself because people on the street would abuse her or take advantage of her disability, so she may have been quite conscious of her surroundings despite her blindness. But at that moment she just seemed to feel completely safe in herself, probably knowing the other lady was there to take care of her, and she appeared to be completely lost in the song, her blindness shutting her off from all around her that could make her become self-conscious again by catching her eye, so maybe she did not really realise, or just did not care, what was around her. In any case, it was a beautiful sight, and I hope that more people like me who saw her today remember this image, and smile whenever they do, and maybe try to get at least some of this feeling back ourselves when we were able to become completely engrossed in something we loved. 

And I hope that she, this young woman I met today, will always keep on dancing.