Expressive, Not Graceful
Happy Argentine Mothers Day...
Joel Bowman with a pithy Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
It’s Día de la Madre (Mother’s Day) down here in Argentina. Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at a ballet recital, watching the ten year old girl who makes dear wifey a mother perform in front of the American Academy of Ballet.
“It’s natural to be a little nervous,” counseled father on the taxi ride in for the big event. “But you’ve done the practice and you know the steps. You’ll be as graceful as ever.”
“Ummm… clowns aren’t graceful, dad.”
[Confused stare...]
“I mean, I’m not supposed to be graceful. That’s for Cinderella. Level five. I’m level four. We do the clown. Expressive, not graceful.”
Looking around the auditorium, we saw the familiar faces of parents one year older than the last recital. Some families live here in the city. Others commute from the provinces, ferrying their own dear daughters in for practice before and after school. They talk in hushed tones before the performance, pretending not to be nervous.
First come the teeny-tiny ballerinas, 4 or 5 years old, in their little doll-like outfits. The crowd gushes, “Aaaawww,” as they prance about, smiles beaming on their dainty little faces.
Then comes the slightly older children, still cute… but now slightly more coordinated. A voice comes over the speakers, announcing the set dances they will perform – character pieces, solo variations, etc.
Some of the dances involve props, like “A stormy day,” in which the ballerinas open a paper umbrella and deal with an imaginary change in the weather. We try to follow along. Some performances are better than others. The crowd applauds just the same.
At long last comes level four, the clowns. We hold dear wifey’s hand. “It’s natural to be a little nervous,” we assure her.
One by one a half dozen ballerinas complete their solo pieces, bending, twirling, leaping, and so on. The ballerinas are skilled, concentrated and, we take care to notice… expressive. One even give a *wink* to the audience.
Perfectly composed and (ahem…) entirely dry-eyed, we join in the applause, relieved everything went well. And if we had, ourselves, become a little too… expressive? Well, grace can always wait until next year...
¡Feliz Día de la Madre!
In this week’s Notes, we mused on peace in the Middle East, the sacred cow of modern democracy and Donald Trump’s multi-billion dollar ultimatum to Argentine voters. All that and more, below…
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
This time next week, the long-suffering Argentines will march off to the ballot box to perform their civic duty in the country’s midterm elections...
Will Milei’s libertarian experiment gain strength in congress? Or will the Peronists reassert their power, limiting the president’s ability to push forward his Freedom First agenda?
Individual rights… of collective obligations? Free markets… or central planning? Liberty… or poverty?
We’ll take a look at the inherent irrationality of modern democracy, with all it’s inglorious, election season hubris, next week.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
P.S. If you’re not already a Notes member, you can join our motley community of freedom lovers, independent thinkers and cheerful skeptics, below. For less than 20 cents a day, we do our best to make it worth every penny…
Beautiful.
We could see the smiles of joy bursting through the screen.