Dancing to the Drum

Question: What is “Dancing to the Drum”?

Clues: Everyone deals with it. No one knows how to deal with it as well as they’d like to. It makes or breaks lives and careers, yet has no power of its own. It exists wherever there are two or more people involved and the incidence of it increases exponentially with the number of additional people involved. It invades our personal lives, our neighbourhoods, the business environment, even our churches and places of worship. It is invisible, yet everyone sees it, (except sometimes you – when it sneaks up and blind-sides you). Some people seem to have an Olympic attitude for it, others can’t see it or be bothered to look.

Answer: Politics

Hidden political relationships between people create strengths and challenges for everyone to one degree or another during our lives, whether at work or at home or at play. I liken it to dancing – and whether you feel you’ve got two left feet on the dance floor of not, there are “steps” you can learn and practice to help you have a more satisfied life.

Many times trying to sell or support your ideas or opinions, justify a decision or plan something so simple as a social occasion is difficult. When you’re unaware of politics or choose to ignore it, you may find yourself stranded without any “power” or “friends”.

Politics can make you feel unsure of your next move. Some days it seems like everything you do is one step forward and two steps back (a lovely little dance move). At the same time you must learn how to lead as well as how to follow. Everyone wants to know more about the steps and the theories, techniques and ways to be wiser in getting their own way. But there are few courses on it (I do have one thought. /me grins).

Get Virtually Real

But that is in the real world surely, not fitting for the joy and fun of a virtual world, right? Wrong!

One of my roles in Avilion, where I live in Medieval times is that of a Bard (poet, story teller, minstrel). I recently wrote a new poem called “The Magic and Mystery of a Heart”. I will not share in its entirety here, but will take out but three stanzas just to get you to thinking about the additional challenges of living in my virtual world:

The Magic and Mystery of a Heart

“Six times faster do I travel through time.
Six times faster do I establish relationships.
Six times faster do I fall in love.
Six times shorter do things not work out.
Six times longer does my love last.
Six time shorter is my grief.
Six times shorter is my hope of tomorrow
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“Six times faster do I travel through time
Extablish relationships
Fall in love
Lose a love
Grieve the past
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“And then, just a magically –
I reach out again.
And six times faster do I
Hope for a new beginning
A new future”

The reason for all this prattling on? Oh, I’m trying to plan one wedding, and at this rate it may have to be six weddings to simply satisfy all the political intrigues and pressures – and I know he who is so shy and rather pragmatic, just wants all the fuss over. Is this really going the way it should?

Or maybe, there’s another way…I just marry six men! Hummm…?