Bebo and The Last Dance

"Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart." 
                                                                                                - Johann Wolfgang von Goeth

       When we are babies we must first learn to crawl, then walk, then run.  If we are lucky, when we are older, we may fall in love and understand what it means to learn to fly. Love lifts up our feet and gives us wings. The closest experience to flying is dancing. You partner lifts you in his arms, up into the air, or you  jump (saute) across the room. 
    The piano player of this song, Bebo Valdés  is 83. Dancing makes you younger. Listen to Bebo play and imagine you have pressed against your heart some lover's old dancing shoes
Locumis refers to African slaves who were brought to Santo Domingo and Cuba. Dancing also makes you feel free.

             Danza Lucumí by Bebo Valdés                                                                   

The Dancer's Shoes

Whom Would You Choose?

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application... 
You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner [man (or) woman]  you have been dreaming about.

Knowing that there can only be room for one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?

Answer

Think before you continue reading. 

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer:

“I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams.”

Never forget to “Think Outside of the Box.”

  

Love and Other Spices

Some things do get better with age but spices are not among them.  So when looking through my cabinet, I was shocked to realize how long some of my spice containers had been around.  Since spices and herbs can be an important way of adding flavor, I ran out to the store to get fresh spices. I was making a spinach and carrot quiche, and both my bottle of red pepper flakes and nutmeg were outdated.

All McCormick items now have "Best by" dates printed on them. If your container or package does not have a “Best by” date code (mm/dd/yy), it was manufactured prior to 2004.

 Here is a list of herbs and spices for romance. Have you had success with any of these yourself?


Here is a Recipe for Love Cake.

I haven't tried it, but it does contain a few of those spices of romance.
Here is some music to play while you are cooking. Dave Koz used to play in the cookin' band with Emeril Lagasse.

To Love Somebody

I Have Decided To Love

The popularity of Martin Luther King, Jr. continues to this day, but this is how he wished to be remembered:

"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, which isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I’d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr tried to love somebody. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity."

              ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Coretta Scott King, wrote in her autobiography that it was "Balm in Gilead" that "my husband quoted when he needed a lift."

The first stanza she cited in "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr." reads:

Sometimes I feel discouraged
And think my work's in vain
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.

Let us all try to love somebody.

Ledges

                 

When you come to the edge of all the light, 

and you know you are about to step off into the 

 darkness of the unknown, 

faith is knowing one of two things will happen: 

either there will be something solid to stand on, 

 or... you will be taught how to fly.

—Patrick Overton

Sometimes we are willing to follow love to the very edge of the world. We travel to the "edge of the ledges" we've made between our past and the uncertain future. The love we seek only provides a path to the traveler, not necessarily a final destination. The book, "Come To The Edge",  written by Christina Haag, a girlfriend of John F. Kennedy, Jr., seems at first to be about a tabloid star, but it is really about taking love to the ledge or edge of your being. When you are in love, you can feel your heart beat fast and happiness is your only cosmetic.

    She describes her relationship with this famous American as "the sunniest years of her life". I think when she reflects back on her time with him, before his untimely death in an airplane crash, she steps off into something solid to stand on - her beautiful memories.

Smitten

Aristotle, a student of Plato, described love as "two bodies and one soul".

The mathematician Edward Frenkel,  a  Russian  mathematical  prodigy  who  became  a  professor  at  Harvard at  twenty-­one  and  who  now  teaches  at  Berkeley,  is  an  unabashed  Platonist.  Frenkel describes his love of mathematics in the same way that Plato describes Eros, the ideal physical beauty that causes the arousal of physical attraction.

And  he  wants  everybody  to  share  that  passion  and  joy.  Once 

 smitten,  the  young  Frenkel  became  obsessed  with  learning  as  much  of mathematics  as  he  could.  (“This  is  what  happens  when  you  fall  in  love.”)  

   Frenkel created a film called "Rites of Love and Math" to help others appreciate the beauty of mathematics.  The “formula  of  love”  used  in  the  film  was  one  that  Frenkel  himself  discovered  (in  the  course of  investigating  the  mathematical  underpinnings  of  quantum  field  theory).  It  is  beautiful, yet  forbidding.  The  only  numbers  in  it  are  zero,  one,  and  infinity.  Isn’t  love  like  that? 

    To get an idea how mathematical beauty can open the door to love , listen to the counterpoint of Bach's Prelude and Fugue No.1 in C Major from The Well- Tempered Clavier.

The Miracle of Love

The miracle of love is that it takes many forms.  We experience it as kindness, giving, mercy, compassion, peace, joy, acceptance, non-judgment, joining, and intimacy.
  We see miracles everyday, but we forget them just as quickly.


“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” 
― Thích Nhất Hạnh

The miracle of love is that it is eternal and everlasting. When we return to love, when we put love back in our hearts, there is a complete transformation of everything we see, hear, smell, taste,  and touch.

As Marianne Williamson said in her book A Return To Love:

"There would be no war because we wouldn’t fight.  There would be no hunger because we would feed each other. There would be no environmental breakdown because we would love ourselves, our children and our planet too much to destroy it.  There would be no prejudice, oppression, or violence of any kind.

     There would be no sorrow.  There would only be peace."