Dance Wildly, Invoke Humanity

Dance Wildly is a blog searching for humanity, and how to find ways to invoke it beyond conventional thinking.

Yes, Dance Wildly. As only you can. Do it alone. Do it with friends. Do it as the spirit moves you, and even when it doesn’t. Dance, and the spirit will come.

We cannot solve old problems unless we invoke new paradigms. But what are they?  I propose dancing wildly as a new paradigm of  problem solving. Not my original idea. I learned it from Jean Houston. She is a wonder of a human being. Yes, Einstein did make the comment that problems cannot be solved with the same mindset as created them. So Jean has suggested dancing as a way of shifting your mindset, evoking within yourself new energies.  She calls them “latent potentialities”. And then, invoking the universe to respond in as of yet unimagined ways.

Do I actually believe this?

Yes. I have done it. So can you.

When I was a dance teacher, my daughter would tease me that I thought every one was a dancer. I still believe it. It is better said that everyone is a mover. As long as the blood flows through your veins, the air enters and exits your lungs, you ARE movement. Even as we strive for stillness and quiet, clear thinking,  the swirling oceans of our inner waters and breath are moving, interacting, exchanging.  Always dancing.  it is the commonality we have with every other living organism.

I have just returned from 3 months in Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. I am the daughter of a Palestinian refugee.  He came to this country way back in the early 1950’s. He died here in 2016. All I will say in this blog is that his death propelled me through a grief process that just did not end. How many of you can relate? The deaths kept going. My sweet dog, beloved black kitty, my oldest son’s father, my youngest’s grandmother, and more.

During this 5 months of dying, I attended a seminar that asked me to step up to a vision. To step up to being a human who dares to stand up, create, see possibilities, and take action. I said yes. I declared I would plant a million trees in Gaza. I re-declared that as a million seeds of possibility for peace throughout the region. I have also since been challenged to plant 10 million trees throughout the West Bank .

I don’t have that kind of money.

I don’t speak Arabic.  I had never been to the Middle East.

I was not particularly politically astute. But off I went.

I shut down my business, got a (great) house sitter, went to NYC to learn a few things, and landed in Tel Aviv on January 15.

Israel. Palestinian Occupied Territories. What I saw, learned, and felt disallowed me from ever returning to life as I had been living it. It is one thing to hear about oppression. It is another to be the one sitting at a check point with fully armed military personnel questioning you. It is true that in my community in Ohio there are many threats to our safety. Many of my friends are immersed in local battles that it is insane to think they even have to be fought.  Activists combating fracking and its waste, mining under national forests, food safety,  hidden racial issues that as of late are much more on the forefront of American news media,  international peace activists, all who have inspired me over the years. Athens, Ohio is a vibrant microcosm of environmental and social activism.  We have true local heroes.

I have been politically silent for quite some time.

Not anymore.  I found my niche. The Middle East . Land of intense energy, passion, beauty, turmoil, injustice, and from my perspective, hope. The challenge is how do I express my views, evoke possibilities, create hope,and  be a part of the tipping point that will push us as a planetary species in a  forward direction that incites humanity?

In the Palestinian Occupied Territories and Israel, there are many things to see and feel. There is plenty to be mad about. Sad about. Feel hopeless about.  It is not better or worse than  the Congo, Rwanda, Yemen, Venezuela. East Timor, Standing Rock, oh my God how unfortunate that this list could be so long.  These struggles carry their own distinction and universality, they are all keystone events.

The Holy Land is on a stage most of the world watches. I am calling it a keystone event for this reason.  I coined this from the term keystone species. A keystone species is one that, although sometimes appearing to be small and inconsequential, is an absolute key component to the survival of the ecosystem it inhabits.  If bees disappear, all life will halt on our planet much sooner than later.  Only midge flies pollinate chocolate.  Poison the midge flies and kiss chocolate goodbye. Trying to eradicate prairie dogs contributed to the horrors of the dust bowl and the depression in the USA in the 1930’s. Every species and culture we have lost already  has pushed us closer to the dangerous tipping point where we find ourselves now. Though we can predict some of the results from eradicating keystone species, unfortunately, we ignore the ramifications of eradicating keystone peoples and the events that cause it. Palestinian Occupied Territories and Israel are a keystone area/peoples ( besides the rich cultural reasons) as far as engendering a widespread planetary hope.  Imagine what will happen in the event of  peaceful, humanitarian resolution.  Imagine how much hope will be given to the world when peace happens in a land where all the rhetoric says no way, they have always been fighting. 

Imagine that. And dance it. Dance your own dance, imagining peace. Fill your entire body with it. Really do it.

I don’t pretend it is simple. As I will write in future blogs, there are some powerfully entrenched co-dependencies.  Powerful, though selfish, reasons to propagate war. During my first trip, I met many people of great character on both sides of the wall.  Muslim, Christian, Jewish, many made me aware that true peace and humanitarian resolution  resides in their hearts. Communally, let’s make it real.  Instead of succumbing to the seeming hopelessness of one reality, I am choosing to use dance as an art form to call up  possibilities of a greater reality. And with that energy I take to writing, theater, and as you will see,  planting millions of seeds of possibility.

The usual political rhetoric is out. New Paradigms are in.  I am joining this group of New Paradigm thinkers. There are many of us!! You included. Stick around, I will introduce you to the ones I have been privileged to meet, study under, work with, all in the past year.

And right now, I am asking you to start creating your own new mode of creative hope. A way of shifting energies.

Dance wildly. Go where it takes you. Call down the beauty of spirit you want to see here. Dance, imagining joy in every cell. Do it often.  Ten seconds, ten minutes. Smile. No politician can take that from you.  If you are only able to breathe, then breathe the dance of your lungs and the air.

Come back and continue to be a part of this conversation, this dance, this empowerment.  I am dancing, listening, and tipping forward with you.

Jeannie Amash