Why I Don't Dance in the Rain

Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Not for me, it isn't. I will wait inside, thank you, and this is why:

One day as a young adult I decided that dancing in the rain was a very romantic notion. I had never danced in the rain, to speak of, without an umbrella and a destination. I declared that I was going to do so, just for the experience, so I went outside.

I tried dancing, but it wasn't very pleasant. "Is rain supposed to hurt?" I asked, and my family, watching from the door replied, "Get back in the house! That's hail!"

I grew up in Southern California. I wasn't really familiar with hail, so forgive me learning that lesson the hard way.

A few years later I was confident that it was not hailing, it was only raining. I had a significant other, and again romantic ideas flooded my head. We could go dance in the rain together! What fun, what a way to live a dream! My s.o. refused to dance, but we walked together, so I counted it.

All in all it was successful enough, until I arrived at my aunt's house, sopping wet. Something was wiggling in my hair. I pulled out one nasty green worm-thing and decided in retrospect that I wished I'd just brought along an umbrella. I haven't danced in the rain since.

If you're now thinking that the whole dancing in the rain thing is a metaphor and maybe I'm taking it all a bit seriously, my reply is that this post is an allegory answering the metaphor. Dancing in the rain usually ends up backfiring. I am, therefore, a cautious person, despite the fact that, at my core, I am a rebel. I am a rebel in mind, heart, and spirit, who is contained by the lesson that if I'm too happy, I'll get slammed in the face with hail or a worm or something. Metaphorically speaking.

I'm not going to tell you not to dance in the rain, though. I probably won't tell my daughter not to, either. Maybe it'll work out for you. Maybe you'll get hailed on or step in a puddle that looks an inch deep but is actually a small pond. I will be perfectly happy standing off to the side with my umbrella, chuckling.