Things are grim, let's dance

An echo of 'Casablanca' scene plays out in a Texas bar

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I took a lot of dance classes in college and even dropped out for a short while with the intention of making a career out of dance.

After a couple of semesters, I realized I wasn’t close to good enough and didn’t want to ever again dry heave in an alley while cleaning out the grease trap of the restaurant where I was working.

I quit the job, returned to college, stopped taking dance and signed up for all the required courses I’d missed. But I kept dancing at campus parties, mostly to student bands or local unknowns who may not have been headed for stardom but knew how to get a room or a lawn rocking with hundreds of 18- to 22-year-olds jumping and shaking.

What I sought were the moments of sweaty exhilaration when I stopped thinking and moved without self-consciousness to the music — a dancer’s high.

Three and a half years ago, my back issues went from chronic to acute, so bad suddenly I had to sleep sitting up for months, swallow 20 or so over-the-counter pain pills a day and use the motorized cart in the grocery store.

Natural healing and physical therapy brought me slowly back to mobility, and after a year, in September of 2023, I danced in celebration at a good friend’s wedding.

Now I’m 65 and feeling healthy. I stretch out almost every day and run up and down the stairs and do planks and pushups.

Meanwhile, Alzheimer’s disease has eroded the mental and physical capacity of my wife, Bella, to the point she can’t leave the house or walk up to the second floor. I feed her, dress her and wash her.

She takes eight pills a day, climbs into bed at 4:30 p.m. and gets up at 7 a.m. The rest of the day she spends on the couch, napping or staring at the wall or resting her head on my shoulder, or wandering the downstairs, picking up items from the shelves and the tables and dressers and moving them to new spots.

The disease has aged her. At 60, she was still strong and youthful, but now at 67, she’s gaunt and haggard, the skin loose on her bones, hair thin and gray.

Sometimes I cook in the afternoon, making chicken stir-fry for us to eat for a few days, tossing broccoli and asparagus into the wok, baby bella mushrooms and chunks of butternut squash, onions and garlic and marinated chicken, stirring and stirring, adding oil, covering it and waiting for the rice to finish.

It takes an hour, and while I do it I listen to music, mostly women, like Nanci Griffith, Lucinda Williams, Iris DeMent, Susan Tedeschi, Patty Griffin, Ellen Jewel and Brandi Carlisle.

Bella continues to wander around, passing back and forth through the kitchen, and sometimes she looks at me and her face wrinkles into a smile and her eyes gleam with pleasure, because she sees I’m dancing.

“I love you, I love you,” she says, reaching for me.

“I love you,” I say and for a few seconds we embrace.

Then she continues doing what she was doing and so do I. Life is sad but also glorious, and while I am alive, I’m going to spend some time dancing.

This is a poster of Mikhail Baryshnikov doing the sort of thing mere mortals cannot, but also capturing the joy of physical expression that is part of life.

Speaking of music

I drew hope from a video someone I don’t know recently put up on Facebook of a country music singer-songwriter from Indiana named Tim Grimm, performing in a cowboy hat and boots in a Texas bar called The Pigpen, singing his song “Broken Truth” to a full house that, at the end, gives him a standing ovation. A few diners, red-faced and uncomfortable, don’t get out of their seats.

The song is an understated but powerful indictment of Donald Trump, and the scene has a bit of the feeling of “the Marseillaise” scene from “Casablanca.”

Granted, the bar is in San Antonio, a traditionally Democratic city, and The Pigpen offers gluten-free and vegan dishes along with brisket nachos and crispy wings. Still, we need all sorts of Americans to stand up and resist Trump, and in this performance of this song, I see hope that is going to happen.

Scroll down on Tim Grimm’s website to listen and watch:

Poem

Here is a poem by Hudson Falls poet Richard Carella:

Entry

I open my heart to you;                                                                                                       though it’s,

somewhat,

unkempt–                                       
and it’s been a long

time since

we’ve entertained guests;                                                                                                       you enter expectantly:

looking for what?

–sending shivers-of-life...                                                                                                 through the cobwebs,

and dust.

Embroideries

My daughter Tam, who oversees the manufacture of large industrial appliances at her day job, also creates embroidered artworks. She recently brought several home in preparation for a show she plans to take part in locally later this year. Here are three of them:

Black & Banned

Frederick Allen Elks Lodge #609 and Mary A. Carter Temple #302 of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, the two oldest black civic organizations in Saratoga Springs, along with Our Lodge Foundation, are shining a light on banned books either written by Black authors or illuminating racism and Black American history.

Essential American literature by and about Black Americans is systematically being removed from library shelves and school curriculums. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has noted an increase in challenges to books about racism and black history, and black authors are banned at a higher rate than white authors.

Invited readers will share passages from these banned books, with personal insight into why the book has been targeted, from 1 to 4 p.m. today (Sunday, Feb. 8) in the Frederick Allen Lodge #609 at 69 Beekman St. in Saratoga Springs. Attendees will also have the opportunity to read from chosen material.

This event is meant to celebrate the freedom to read what we choose, without government or public interference — an essential right for creating a better world for everyone.

Banned books by Black authors include “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” “Beloved,” “The Bluest Eye,” “The Color Purple” and “The Hate U Give.”

Banned books exposing racism include “To Kill A Mocking Bird,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Black Like Me.”

This event is free. Donations are always appreciated.

While the lodge’s bar will not be open, soda and water will be available for purchase.

Faith leaders holding forum

“Welcome the Stranger,” a conversation on faith and immigration led by Fr. Scott VanDerveer from St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Glens Falls, Rev. Dr. Natalie Wimberly from First Baptist Church in Hudson Falls and Pastor Michael Plank from First Presbyterian Church in Hudson Falls will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, in the United Methodist Church at 227 Main St., Hudson Falls.

The event is sponsored by Adirondack Regional Immigration Collaborative.