Learning something new is hard, and anyone who tries has my respect.
Though, I draw the line at an utter lack of rudimentary social skills when the task at hand is willful engagement in a social activity.
Before I get any more cryptic, I'll just come out with the embarrassing detail that I'm writing about swing dancing, a topic I used to breathe, eat, and drink on a near cellular-oxygen-exchange level. (The embarrassing part being that I thought I shook this long ago to free up mindspace for issues in public health, policy, and research.)
To wit, tonight I learned a new dance step, as a lead, whereas I am most comfortable as a follow -- and it was a challenge. Rhythm was no friend mine for the greater portion of a minute. I felt panicky and awkward and lost.
Granted, I was not in this mode for long, but long enough to have a taste of what it's like to just NOT get something. So I'll say it again -- learning new stuff is hard! And in this particular instance, leading a dance step is astronomically difficult to enact when one is all at once trying to gain control of their own body, direct the motion of a totally separate vector, and make it happen together and to a certain beat.
I've learned this lesson before, but it's good to have reminders. Build "beginner time" into life -- especially if you're already comfortable in an "expert" role; perhaps by taking up a new hobby, an instrument, a craft, an academic field of tangential interest -- for the sake of staying humble if not to feed an insatiable curiosity that a busy world would like to quash. And, if you can, eat more fruits and veggies.
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In the same evening of my euphoric appreciation, I was asked to dance by complete strangers who didn't smile, didn't offer their names, and who exuded an overall demeanor bordering on haughty standoffishiness. Consider that, simultaneously, they were holding my hand or waist or both, spinning me here and there, expecting me to suffer through close-body dips, all with nothing more than a stone-faced expression with which to interact.
After 3 (interminable) minutes of this and a few moments more (when I wait to see if they will now introduce themselves after having asked me to dance and not saying one word more), am I to blame for a curt thank you, a small smile, and a speedy retreat?
