George is 'Back on the Floor'

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. Dancing. I’ve never been able to do it. Talk about two left feet. I have four. But I admire dancing. And people who can dance. Last 24 November I linked [1] to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to ‘Pick Yourself Up’ [2]. Pure virtuosity, eh. I identify with tap dancing and old-time dancing. Modern dancing I understand less. Though I still appreciate, and admire, the athleticism it requires. And so to a young Haitian man: 28-year-old George. A professional dancer, in the 12 January 2010 earthquake he sustained severe injuries to both his legs. His right leg was amputated. Was his dancing career over? You’d think so. Then George met an Israeli rehabilitation team helping out in post-quake Haiti. The result? Play the video (titled Back on the Floor) [3] and judge for yourself. A year after the earthquake, and following intensive rehabilitation in Israel and Haiti, you’d hardly pick that George is an amputee. How positive and optimistic is that.

H/t Sweetheart Vivienne for bringing George’s inspirational story to my attention.

Dorothy, Jerome, Ginger, Fred - and my woodpile

Swing Time [1]. It’s a 1936 US musical comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Its music – written by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields – includes some of my all-time favourites: ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ [2] and ‘A Fine Romance’ [3]. And, of course, ‘Pick Yourself Up’ [4, 5]. I thought I was okay at stacking firewood. How hard can it be? Last weekend I stacked three trailer loads of wood that Dieter [6] had split. And a mighty fine woodpile it was too. Then on Monday night I arrived home to find it mostly collapsed. The wind hadn’t been blowing. So perhaps an errant possum had climbed on it and tipped it over. Self-evidently it hadn’t been as stable as I’d thought. It sure made a mess of my confidence as a wood stacker. So what else could I do – but take a lead from Kern and Fields:

Nothing's impossible I have found

For when my chin is on the ground

I pick myself up

Dust myself off

Start all over again.

Don't lose your confidence if you slip

Be grateful for a pleasant trip

And pick yourself up

Dust yourself off

Start all over again.

Yesterday morning, with ‘Pick Yourself Up’ playing on my iPod, I rebuilt the woodpile. Nowhere near as deftly and nimbly as this [7]. But more stably than before. I think. Will it collapse again? I hope not. But it may. And if it does? I’ll pick myself up…