Don't imprison the old

Simonthepilgrim

An Ndn (Native American to you and me) friend posted a video on her Facebook site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYByMddJEo&feature=player_embedded

It set me thinking. We bang up our old people in prisons labelled 'care homes' or some such - and it's nearly time that my kids started thinking about some such for me : and I doin't want to go.

It is the Elders who sing the old songs and tell the old stories. How will they be heard if we shut them behind walls and silence them with medication?

And our dances? We still dance over here as in the US. I have danced English, Scottish and Irish country dances. I've even done some Morris. If we lose these, we shall lose out to the grey people of the cities whose feet never touch the earth but stumble along on concrete and clay.

We must not deprive our young of their links to the old roots.

All people dance. To misquote the Internationale, dance unites the human race:
Tibetan dance

Sufi dance

Nirvana

Thanks for the links, Pilgrim Pilgrim! The Sufi one was especially beautiful, and the Seneca tribal dance one very interesting. The Ahwahneechee channel that features the Seneca dance is beautiful and fascinating.

Surely, Sir, it will be at least 15 years before you have to worry about anything like the old folks home. If it ever came to that, though, you'd be keeping people dancing all right!

Namaste, you dear old soul!