" ... but even strong women need an arm to lean on now and then."
-- J.D. Robb, Glory in Death
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| Leo and ballerina Barbie 6-13-14 |
"Strong people don't put others down.
They lift them up."
-- Michael P. Watson
My son Leo goes lifting at the gym almost every day.
He goes there to lift heavy weights in order to get stronger for football so he can knock people down.
For the past several months, though, he's been doing a different kind of lifting.
He and his buddy, Mikey, signed up as danseurs for a mostly-girls dance academy that needed strong guy partners to lift the ladies in their season-ending show.
Their show opened last night, and Leo made his dancing debut.
I was so proud of all the kids, and impressed as hell. But I was especially proud of and impressed by my big, strong, athletic boy who showed his brute strength in a softer, gentler, more elegant way as he gracefully lifted, held, supported and spun lithe, lovely dancers in leotards, satin toe shoes and tulle.
Most of the girls in the program have been dancing for years -- some of them their entire young lifetimes.
But Leo and Mikey were first-timers. Beginners. Rookies. You'd never know it. They danced with poise, maturity, sensitivity, confidence and seemingly effortless strength. The girls trusted the guys' strong arms and athleticism to hold them securely, and they did. The two of them even busted out some pretty fancy footwork of their own.
Leo's strength showed the most though, in the tremendous courage it took to open himself to the unfamiliar, to step out and try something completely brand new, and to stick with it through months of long rehearsals in order to get it right, and then to do what he'd learned -- wearing nothing but a tunic and tights -- in front of hundreds of people.
That's a kind of strong you can't get in any gym or weight room. That's the kind of strong that burns like a hot little blue flame in a magical mysterious place somewhere deep down inside some people.
It was a beautiful thing to see in my son, and in every young dancer who took the stage.
Practice for the fall football season will start up pretty soon, and Leo will again shift his focus to knocking down the opposition. And that's cool. I am equally proud of him whether he's sacking a quaterback or carefully helping his partner hold a perfect Penché.
Either way, there's something pretty damned special about watching your own kid do something big and brave and beautiful.
It's ... oh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Wait, I've got it.
Uplifting.
