Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Our desire to realize our potentials, to conquer the unknown, to expand the limits, and to possess more, is a part of what drive us. This very nature is the cause of our accomplishments on one hand and abuses on the other.
Our society is full of such abuses or extremisms – unlimited personal freedom, selfish individualism, heartless capitalism, militant feminism, ultra conservatism, ultra liberalism, extremist political right and left, religious fundamentalism, terrorism, radical sciences and technologies, monopolist business practices, extravagant
lifestyles, violent entertainments and sports, bank fraudulence, gun lobby, over spending, over taxation, overuse of natural resources, man-made climate changes, population explosion, economic downturns…
All these result not in a coherent and harmonious human society, but inequality, polarization, conflict, hatred, hostility and war. We go from one extreme to another without realizing that all forms of extremism come from the same human nature within us – greed, self-interests, ignorance and intolerance.
We are unable and unwilling to consider interests and perspectives beyond our own. We cannot see the whole picture of which we are only a tiny dot. We rely on might and power to solve problems, and we do not understand the consequence of unbalanced approaches.
Our relentless pursuit of self-interests could lead to the destruction of civilization, if we let our greed and ignorance go unchecked and unbalanced. This is not alarmist talk. Given how rapidly and radically the world has changed since World War II, how long can Mather Nature support our greed and mankind remain peaceful with each other?
I am not the only one who worries. Whether you realize it or not, tango’s popularity reflects the universal nostalgia for the missing peace and the rebellion against the dehumanizing realities of our times.
Tango is fascinating to many because in tango we find a different reality – common interests, togetherness, interdependence, connection and complement.
In tango we regain the joy in complying, comforting and pleasing each other instead of in competing with each other.
In tango we find a refuge void of animosity and conflict, a shoulder that we can rely on, and a way to reach harmony through communication, collaboration accommodation, reconciliation and compromise.
In tango we discover the wisdoms of Jesus who taught love, Gandhi who advocated nonviolence, Lao Tzu who pleaded simplicity and naturalness, and Confucius who argued for the golden mean.
In tango we find peace, love, intimacy, collaboration, unity, and a better world we wish ours could become.
That is why people are attracted to tango. That is why I am sad to see that tango, too, is polarized by the extremist tendency to make this dance of love a dance of show, a dance of exoticism, a dance of political correctness, and a dance for profit.
By so doing they not only change the essence of the dance, but also betray its idealism and degrade tango from a dance that teaches the world to love to that against its ordained purpose, from that sublimates the humanity to that debases it, and from that symbolizes the world we want ours to become to that reflects the world we want to change.
Many people now take responsibilities to keep the natural environment clean and natural resources wisely used, because the Earth is our only home. Should we not also take responsibilities to keep the human environment clean and societies stable for the same reason?
People new to tango need to awaken to the fact that how you see tango affects how you learn and dance it.
You may learn just how to do steps, or you may learn how to be one with each other.
You may dance it to show your ego, or you may dance it to show your love.
You may reinvent tango, or you may let tango change you and through you the world.
How you dance matters, because by which you will leave an impact, either way.
