Dancing and Texting in the Rain

Fortunately for him, my coach friend who was sitting with me at the football game had vacated his seat for a few moments when I broke bad that night. Had he been there at the time, I suspect I would be attending sports contests by my lonesome self in the future. I still feel my behavior during his absence was justified- considering the moment. And as you may know by now, I enjoy living in the moment. The team I was rootin’ for had just scored the game-clinching touchdown and the band had fired up a rendition of Cheeseburger in Paradise- or was it We Didn’t Start the Fire. Either way, my side of the stadium was pumping. I didn’t personally know the lady next to me but I assumed some of my female church friends sitting in front of me did. Turns out they didn’t know her either but I would have never known based on the way they all laughed and carried on together during the game. At one point when it started to drizzle, I poked my head under my neighbor’s umbrella and told her I was coming in. “Either that,” I said, “or I keep letting it drip off the side right onto my head.” She obliged. Just after the clinching touchdown, my neighbor frantically began texting on her cellphone. And when the band cranked up, she continued texting and started dancing. Both things at once. In rhythm. Despite an excellent game, it was the most impressive feat I witnessed that night. Caught up in the moment, I joined in. The fact that my neighbor was black and I am white was irrelevant except that I risked my performance dulling in comparison to hers based on the whole “white men can’t dance” assumption. To increase my odds, I cheated by faking the texting thing with my blackberry and just pushed a bunch of random buttons while I danced. Being the local college baseball coach, the father of three boys, and a deacon in my church, you might think I would have considered my actions carefully and carried myself with more dignity. Not on that night. The moment was too powerful. And I felt I held my own pretty well. My neighbor and her companions seemed to enjoy the company and my church friends were laughing, though it may have been AT me instead of WITH me. I think people ought to dance more, anyway, even if they’re bad at it. Life is to be celebrated, not calculated. And I think people ought to speak to strangers sitting next to them more often, too. Even if their skin colors don’t match. But most of all, I think people deserve to laugh, either at me or with me. When my coach friend returned to his seat a few minutes later, I played off the whole dancing incident and quickly began discussing the game. Relieved to realize he hadn’t witnessed my escapades, I made some remark about us catching the next game if he wasn’t busy. So I’m hoping between now and the next game, nobody fills him in on just how much “in the moment” I became that night. Some people might be embarrassed to have danced while texting in the rain. But this coach/father/deacon is proud. (And would do it again).