Dance the night away?

Hardly.

Just thinking today that it is an interesting world out there. Every once in a while, I wonder what it would be like to live in the heart of a big city. Sure, I drive through Portland every day on my way to work. Every once in a while, I even make it to a concert or pub downtown, but I pass through like an accidental tourist.

I wonder what it would have been like to live in a city when i was young and could really enjoy all of the benefits of being so close to all the action, then I remember that the things I really enjoy do not happen to coincide with being downtown. Well, unless you consider drinking and eating a lot to be activities that can only occur in a vibrant city nightscape.

The sad truth is that night life is not really something that would suit me either now or in my youth. Well, it might suit me, but it would not have made me much of a night life person.

I love music, but it seems that most of those of the fairer sex who also love music tend to want to dance along. Uh, yeah, that has never been a part of my life. I look like Chandler Bing, or maybe Elaine from Seinfeld when I dance. Knowing this, I simply do not dance. Oh, I "danced" with my children when they were young, but that was more or less me swinging them in circles and singing horribly along with whatever song happened to be playing.

I am okay singing very awfully in public, but it just seems so much less embarrassing than dancing badly in public. Why is that? What is it about dancing that makes us more self-conscious when we do it poorly?

Truth is, like everything about men, it all comes back to sex. When you are not a good singer, but do it in public anyway, we are seen as confident and funny. A little self-depracting, but not in a bad way; oh and women don't hear a bad singer and think "bad in bed."

Bad dancer? Opposite. Sure, some may find some comfort in your boldness to dance poorly without regard for what others think. But be honest, though, men are judged as "bad in bed" when women see them girating uncontrollably in an awkward manner.

It has no basis in reality, but that is what we feel others are thinking. Dancing badly has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with whether we satisfy a partner or not, but it is a stigma that gained traction who knows when and has led to a lifetime of shame "not dancing." Isn't it sad that we let something so stupid affect whether we let ourselves be free?