“If you want to get up and dance, feel free–but you might want to consult your healthcare professional first.”
In all the years I have used this line in senior facilities to introduce waltzes, The Tennessee Waltz, Blue Danube, Annie’s Song, no one has ever taken me seriously. Until this week. As I played my Valentine’s day program for a family night at a senior home, a middle aged son pulled his resident mother to her feet. They waltzed very slowly, yet were some of the most beautiful dancers I have ever seen.
Pulling together my Valentines music earlier, I realized that most of my love songs were waltzes or some cousin of 3/4 time. When we normally think of romantic love as between two people, why is the best romantic music based on counting three?
My mother describes love to me by holding her fingers in a triangle. “The bottom two points are your father and me, the top point is Jesus. Since we both love Jesus first, we are able to love each other.”
So three is the number of true love, the kind of love we celebrate and sing about on Valentine’s Day, the kind of love that isn’t just between a man and a woman but between friends and between family. And that is something to dance about.
