Something Happens at Funerals

Tap dancers have a tradition at funerals. We dance.

I was 12 when I first experienced this at the service for Lon Chaney (the tap dancer, not the actor). It was beautiful. It wasn’t a performance. It was a ritual. An expression of connection, remembering, and celebration. I’d never experienced anything like it.

There’s another thing that I’ve experienced at funerals, too. People set aside petty differences and take on a different disposition to one another. I don’t know what prompts this change. Maybe it’s a recognition of life’s brevity. Or could it be an out pouring of all the love we wanted to share with the departed that we never did. Either way, the shift begs a question:

What would life be like if the loving, forgiving, and compassionate disposition we experience at services was the way we all were all the time?

What are we waiting for?