Dancing in the dark

My one year old has a toy that only exist because of Grandma (we aren't big on blinky lights and batteries).  He goes up to it, presses the button, and then starts dancing to his hearts content to the blaring "Mary had a little lamb" played in tasteless beeps.  There is nothing like watching someone dance for the sheer joy of it.  He noticed me watching him today, thankfully he is too young to have acquired that self consciousness that not only robs us of seeing this beauty in older kids, but of experiencing this beauty ourselves.  I smiled at him, thinking in my oversaturated with parenting books mind that I didn't want him to start feeling self conscious and that if I made him think he was a good dancer, he would believe that, and continue to like dancing, and somehow this would free him from societies expectations.  But I was wrong.  He didn't like me caring about his dancing.  He wasn't dancing for my opinion.  He was dancing because he wanted to.

In so many schools, including colleges, they misrepresent arts as "forms of communication".  I have always been annoyed by phrases such as "What message is this song trying to convey?"  They even have it written into state law "You must teach these."  You know those state standards for all robot teachers to follow.  I've seen it in more than one state where under arts (we should feel honored that they even bothered to include something as "non-essential" as the arts in their robot manual, I mean it's not like entertainment is the USA's biggest export or something), it says that teachers must meet the standard of requiring the kids to "understand" (believe - do I smell forced religion?) that the arts are for communicating.  This just makes me so mad.  I love communication.  I think it will make our world a better place.  I want to study communication more.  But my son doesn't dance to communicate, and neither do I.


What my daughter wrote when she was in kindergarten and they wanted to test her to see if she had learned the "purpose" of art: 
"Art is to make you happy when you draw it so that when you see it you will remember how much you enjoyed drawing it and be happy - others will see how much you enjoyed drawing it and be happy too. (that's why people like looking at art.)"

Art is not a communication, but an expression.

- Smelling the butterflies

Dancing in the dark

The darkness encased
The ground felt
The air flowed
I danced.

The colors flowed
The light played
The motions knew
I drew.

The Ocean thundered
My breathe rushed
The joy exploded
I sang.

The mud oozed
The fingers told
The rain fell
I formed.

The soul broke
The tears flowed
The thoughts came
I wrote.

The wind touched
The sky beheld
The silence echoed
I ran.

The snow called
The emptiness fell
My soul drank
I climbed.

The stars shone
The heavens turned
The earth replied
I saw.

The heart told
The fingers still
The smile strayed
I dreamed.