Dancing Through Life

A few months back I was chatting with a friend on Facebook about how sometimes not labeling situations in life and giving them a title or category can be a positive thing because then you're not mislabeling or overanalyzing.

He copied a few of the lines from Wicked's Dancing Through Life song to add to the conversation and for the first time, I loved something more than just a beautiful voice in that song. 

At that point I knew I wanted to take these lyrics somewhere with a blog post but I just wasn't sure exactly where. Now I've figured it out.

Let's review some of the lyrics first before beginning:

Dancing through life
skimming the surface
gliding where turf is smooth
life's more painless
for the brainless
why think too hard?
when it's so soothing
dancing through life
no need to tough it
when you can sluff it off as i do
nothing matters
but knowing nothing matters
it's just life
so keep dancing through...

dancing through life
swaying and sweeping
and always keeping cool
life is fraughtless
when you're thoughtless
those who don't try
never look foolish
dancing through life
mindless and careless
make sure your where less
trouble is rife
woes are fleeting
blows are glancing
when you're dancing
through life... 

I've noticed a lot lately in my own life and the lives of others that people often put on a "dancing through life" facade in their relationships. 

We have this fear that if we dip beneath the surface we'll end up drowning. Why take the risk when you can "skim the surface"?

I've seen skimming the surface situations in...

a couple who is fighting but only chit chats about fluff because they don't want to make things worse..

someone who wants to push for more but doesn't want to disturb a precariously balanced scale..

avoidance rather than confrontation..

This fear of drowning can also cause us to take on a "mindless and careless" persona. It's easy to play blonde and not acknowledge that you are aware of the reality around you.

Even if you know you've done something wrong it's easy to pretend you weren't aware and people let you get away with it.

Some people, girls especially, have complicated plans, yet they take on a very offhand personality to make it appear they're not deeply involved in a matter.
We find reasons to not say exactly what is on our mind whether it's because we feel it is not the right time, we don't want to hurt the person's feelings, we don't want to ruin something good we've spent so much time working towards, we don't want to be wrong, we claim that it is not necessary to share... 
People can come up with a lot of reasons..
and they do.

One reason I love these lyrics is that one way you look at them, they provide a positive angle on a way we can live our lives, yet they also show how much you can be missing.

There's a point when "dancing through life" simply doesn't cut it if you want to be holding a trophy in the end. 
But sometimes it is hard to take the risk of losing a menial ribbon you might get if you keep dancing.


But what's a ribbon worth anyway when you know you wimped out on a trophy?