A brush with God?

My friend Steve (from here at the Dame) says that being at the beach is like an encounter with God for him. He just loves the ocean and the shore, and for him, being there is a spiritual experience. (Needless to say, moving to South Bend from LA has put a crimp in his style as far as being near the ocean). This has gotten me thinking about what experiences are like that for me.

A few Saturdays ago I had a brunch at my house with about 15 guests. I loved cooking and having people over, and I just really enjoyed the whole thing. When everyone left, I realized that there's a lot of diversity of people I have come to know. Of my guests, there were 4 white people, 4 black people, 4 Indian people, 1 Asian, and 1 Hispanic. People mingled and mixed, and made new friends. That night was a big Bhangra party (a kind of Indian dance) so the Indians were full force advertising while at brunch. Lo and behold, that evening several of our white guests and black guests showed up for the Bhangra. It was fabulous to see.

I am getting more settled with friends here. I've been pulled into a pre-established group of friends, more or less. What group? The second year Indian MBA students. (And by Indian, I do not mean Indian American, but came here from India a year or two ago for school). I got pulled in by my roommate Bharti. They feed me home cooked Indian food, they think it's hilarious I own Indian music, they invite me to parties for Indian holidays, and they are teaching me Hindi. I love it.

In any case, the point of this is that I have realized just how much I love being in diverse groups and having friends from other cultures. I just feel at home there. I can't quite put my finger on why completely, but I think part of it is that I love seeing boundaries crossed that aren't usually crossed in our society. For me, that situation is one where I can say I feel that "brush with God" that Steve talks about.

At the Bhangra party a few weeks ago, we danced Bhangra for three or four hours straight. (Bhangra is high energy dancing that involves a lot of jumping). I sat down for maybe five minutes total the entire evening. Afterwards my friends were like, "Don't you get tired? How can you dance without sitting the entire night?" "I don't know, I just don't realize I'm tired while I'm dancing."

Last night two of my Indian guy friends and I went to the Landing, a local club where they have salsa dancing Thursday nights. I have been to the Landing several times, and I love it. We danced salsa, merengue, and various other improvisations for several hours. My friend Prem said to me while we were dancing, "You never get tired. You should always come here with two guys, so they can take turns resting while you dance."

Dancing is my second brush. I sometimes feel I could dance forever without sitting down. I don't know what I like about it, but I always have. Pre-college, I had my dance classes I took and my classes I taught. People knew me as a dancer, even down to my screen name "danserval". In college, I danced some, but mostly I neglected my love for dancing. I don't know how that happened, but I am so happy I have gotten to dance so much more lately. Dancing is my second brush, a time when I feel I'm on a different plane or in a different world. Hans Bos said, "While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance."

So diverse groups and dancing: the two things for me I can say are "spiritual experiences" or whatever you want to call them.
This blog entry was probably more for me than for you. And it's more personal "bare my soul" than I usually like to put on my blog. But hey, all I can say is that I don't think my sentiments are just my own personal quirks. I think they probably have a place in the larger human narrative. Surely, the world would be a better place if we all felt at home in diverse groups of people. I'm not sure how to tie dancing in as nicely, but I think we all would be a little better if we got to dance a little more.