Skip to main content

It's a Wonderful Life


Sometimes my mind goes down such useless roads.
When things are going badly, it seems so easy to get lost in thorny tangles of what if I had?
What if they had?
What if I never?

Maybe I would have finished college.
Maybe I wouldn't live my life in pieces at a time.
Maybe I would look further ahead than the end of the month.
Maybe I wouldn't feel so raw so often.

Maybe.

But if the bad things hadn't happened . . .
If better things had.
If my route had changed . . .
and my life changed . . .

I wouldn't have met my husband . . .
or his family that became my family . . .
I wouldn't know the people I know
who care so much for me and for whom I care so deeply.

and tango . . .

my life, all the ugliness and beauty, pain and elation, brought me to tango.
So I've got to shake this off - this useless interrogation of the past.


La vida es una milonga y hay que saberla bailar,
Life is a milonga,
you gotta dance to how it goes . . .


So let's just dance
Let your body tell me your tales,
and I'll let mine do the same.
Our feet can trace out
our battle scars in the dust on the floor,
and our hearts can whisper secrets
to each other in their beats.

Our hard won miles brought us here
to this music,
this tanda,
this moment . . .

There is no time,
for what if I had,
what if I hadn't.
Just this - right now.

La vida es una milonga y hay que saberla bailar,
que en la pista está sobrando el que pierde su compás.

Life is a milonga—
you gotta dance to how it goes;
it'll leave you behind on the floor
if you're one to lose the beat.


(Translation courtesy of TangoDC and photo courtesy of morguefile.com . )
Labels:

Comments

Tango Therapist said…
I was supposed to be mobilized with an Army unit to be near my children in Germany, and instead I was stuck in El Paso. (It could have been Iraq too.) But in El Paso is where I found tango, and tango has been the one thing in my life that has no plateau. It just keeps ramping up with great friends, the love of movement, a sense of accomplishment, a deeper sense of musicality that affects the way I play music, and much more. I feel more alive than ever. What would we do with our lives if everything just went the way we wanted it?
December 16, 2010 at 5:35 PM
Elizabeth Brinton said…
Beautiful words Mari. Thoughts sometimes just get in our way.
"Let your body tell me your tales...."
Thanks, E
December 16, 2010 at 9:02 PM
Dieudonne said…
Yeap! we all have these thoughts at various moments. What if....? If I could go back knowing what I know today, I wouldn't change a thing, since my past has brought me to where I am today, and I love it. I love this place of emotions where I am complete as a Human Being, this place that Tango music offers me and that I embrace when I dance.
I don't know what my words have to do with what you are talking about, but this is what Wonderful life looks like! See you on pista.
December 17, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Sallycat said…
If my hubby hadn't left me and I hadn't gone to Mongolia alone on our big adventure made for two, I wouldn't have discovered tango. If I hadn't come to dance that tango in Buenos Aires I wouldn't have ended up writing a book and learning how to publish it myself. If I hadn't made that first book over a period of two years, I wouldn't have been able to create a book for my Mum, in two short months, to share her experience of oral cancer with people who need the generous gift of her words and sketches http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=303867&id=569120627&l=53c7e2780e.

Your words are very beautiful, and I think, so is the shimmering fabric woven by the paths of all our tango lives.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts so honestly.
SC
December 20, 2010 at 12:11 AM
Marika said…
Thank you everyone for your comments. I've received so many stories of peoples' journeys that brought them to tango. I would like to think I would have ended up in tango no matter what, but who can say. Merriest of Christmases, and Happiest of New Years to each of you. Thank you for all of your inspiriation.
December 23, 2010 at 11:11 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tim Ferriss and the Myth of Tango Mastery

Dear tanguero, I feel I should explain my reaction to your comments about Tim Ferriss. It touched a nerve and I didn't really explain my apparent hostility. It was certainly not meant for you. Several people have brought Tim Ferriss to my attention over this past year. I can usually make it a month before his name pops up again. For readers who are unfamiliar with him, he's the author of "The 4 Hour Work Week". He set a Guinness record for the most consecutive tango turns and has competed with his partner, Alicia Monti, at the Tango World Championship . As a social dancer the idea of a tango competition seems absurd. I don't think I will ever understand how something like tango could be judged - or why anyone would want it to be. But I digress. I think the most crucial detail of Ferriss's history, as I relate it to tango, is his winning Wired magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" . If there is any concept more out of synch with social ...
6 comments
Read more

"Proper" Tango Shoes

Periodically someone, usually a man, will be bring up the topic of "proper tango shoes." If he's referring to the problem (and dangers) of trying to dance in flip-flops, or mules, or platform shoes etc., those are definitely valid, and very helpful points to be made. The likelihood of damaging your feet is very high without the proper support of high quality shoes. My problem comes with the idea that the *only* proper tango shoes have 4" stiletto heels on them and fetish-worthy embellishments. (Okay, I'm pretty keen on the embellishments myself.) "goofy ballroomy shoes are a turnoff... get rid of them..." - Alex Tango Fuego (granted this is from 2007), http://alextangofuego.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-dance-or-not-to-dancebrutally.html And, in the comments on a blog post, Anonymous said... " This is a controversial one. If a follower isn't wearing tango shoes then it's usually a good sign she's not particularly good." From Ms. Hedgeh...
24 comments
Read more

Tango solidarity when it counts . . .

Some fellow tanguera-bloggers and I have been having a wonderful online "conversation" via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and email - about the importance of sisterhood and solidarity. You can find Stephanie's post, here and her follow up here , and then Tangocorazon's here . I was so bouyed by the idea of women bonding, helping and supporting each other that I took some things for granted. I took for granted that it would always be easy, enlightened as I am /*cough*/ to be the sort of consistently nurturing and helpful tanguera that I am (in my head) . The truth? Where the rubber met the road (or rather when the discomfort hit the milonga), I wasn't. Here's a little background that gave me a better perspective on the events at the New Year's Eve milonga. These guidelines appear under the heading " Behavior at the Milonga " on Vancouver Island Tango: " . . . The smaller the tango population, the more 'effort' required from each one of th...
7 comments
Read more