Me and Tango and Blogging

I started dancing because I wanted to add something to my life. But I've said this before.

I wanted something that I could keep working away at for a good long while and would occupy a reasonable chunk of my time and attention in a way that benefited me and didn't destroy anything else that I wanted in my life. Tango just worked for me. It more or less still does. Now and then I take a little holiday from it, but it gives me a lot.

It is by no means a consuming passion, and never has been. It's not a search for Wisdom, or Bliss, or even aerobic fitness or body tone. Although obviously any of those things would be a bonus, should they choose to show up. I like the music, it speaks to me emotionally, and I love that I can dance to it, but I don't listen to it constantly and I am also just as fond of quiet as I was before.

What it is, is a really interesting and enjoyable pastime that gets me thinking about all kinds of things that I would never think about otherwise, and talking to people I like and would never otherwise have met, and also gets me out of the house and gives me a reason to dress up and look pretty and use my body and make an effort to do something as well as I can that nobody expects of me, but is purely for my own benefit and satisfaction.

I get about as annoyed by bullshit and badness in tango as I do in other areas of life. Not really more or less. Well, maybe less, in some ways.

It's also a pint-sized and entertaining world that I can contribute to in a small way by the easy and enjoyable means of writing a blog. I've done blogs before, on other subjects, and they're just fun. A modest amount of attention doesn't hurt, either; I'd be lying if I didn't say I was thrilled, some time ago, to learn that someone in 2007 still remembered* my pre-Blogger incarnation.

I could overanalyse for pages, but when it comes down to it, as silverofice commented on the previous post, I blog because it's fun and I don't really need a reason. Although of course each post is better, considered individually, if it has some sort of a reason for being what it is. It's quite a lot of work, but it's a kind of work that I enjoy. It keeps me interested.

“It's only rock and roll, but I like it.”

The Rolling Stones

But after all, why not Rock and Roll? The above doesn't go far on the question of why tango rather than something else. I think there are a couple more instalments of me and tango on the way.

*I have to confess I have completely forgotten both Enrique Bernoldi and Gaston Mazzacane, but I haven't forgotten HHF.