Each year in the lead up to the Mardi Gras parade, I’m reminded that there are very different forms of fitness and body awareness. Our float is full of relatively fit people, we are lifesavers, we can swim out into the surf or paddle out through a big surf to rescue people.
The routines we have done over the last four parades have been fairly simple and a lot of fun, but I’m constantly amazed that a few people cannot even march in time to music. Each year there are one or two people that while they get the arm movements correct their feet are completely out of time. I cannot claim to be any kind of spectacular dancer but for me it makes it much easier if your feet and arms are both in time to the same beat, not one to the real beat and the other to some imaginary beat. Yet those same people can race a triathlon or get a drowning victim to shore easily.
None of this is in any way a criticism. I’m constantly fascinated by how different people are. Aerialists for example, are renowned for being clumsy on the ground, yet dangle them 8 metres off the ground and they’ll astound you with spectacular agility and grace. I’m not including myself in that statement either. I still run into things on the ground and trip over a shadow, but I’m not graceful up in the air.
what the hell are you talking about
Your post reminds me of two great friends of mine. Both love music, both love to sing karaoke or be featured soloists at social functions – but neither can carry a tune in a bucket. Of course both can recognize and explain an obscure piece of classical music or pick out the counter melody, but they’re missing that piece which allows them to “hear” whether they are on key or not. I’ve always been fascinated by these little disconnects. Things like these are what life so interesting!