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Spending Time Doing Things is the name of the 1986 solo by one of my mentors and favorite choreographers, Bebe Miller. When I first learned of the solo, it's the title that stuck with me---spending time doing things. So simple yet so packed with meaning. What time? What things? And what kind of doing? Aren't we always spending time doing things? This holiday, as I spend time with family and friends by the fire, over dinner, in the living room having a wandering conversation until midnight, spending time doing things has continued to come to mind. I think it's because I feel like I'm truly spending time doing things.
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Maybe it's because I have more time and more things to do. Maybe. And yes, you could very well say the things I have to do---driving, cooking, talking, walking, sleeping---are the same things I tend to do anyway in a normal day. But somehow over the holidays they're not the same. To me, during this time of year, the time I spend doing things is different. I attribute it to the concentration of spirit around me, the level of energy circulating in the room. The ease with which time unfolds {if you've made room for time to unfold}, like time should. The way things to do seems appealing {again, if you're doing things you like to do}, not like a task or a chore. Cooking feels even more pleasurable and sleeping even more welcome and sweet {if you can fall asleep like a rock, which I know can be hard over the holidays, too}.
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And there is something else. Having the time to wander in talk and thought has allowed me to see things doing things a little bit more. Do you know what I mean? I tend to anthropomorphize things in the world. An empty cup looks lonely to me. A clean-made bed looks proud and at peace with itself. Two trees standing side-by-side look like loyal friends. Anthropomorphizing---seeing human form and personality in things. Walking around the day after Christmas with hardly anyone around on the street, the world seemed so quiet. Things spoke to me a bit more.
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Like this giant evergreen decorated with red bows and bulbs---feeling so dignified and pretty with its ornaments, but also kind of lonely.
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Or these basketball hoops, in a stand-off, or perhaps admiring each other's long legs.
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Or these trees, looking out over the fence, enjoying the view while shading their friend the white fence (the white fence has delicate skin, it does}.
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Or this long, wooden fence, protecting its smaller kin---the brown, bare branches behind it---from wind or rain or tall dogs looking for a place to pee.
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And then there is me, finding endless amusement in taking photos of myself as I peer into Christmas bulbs.
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And then there is the actual solo by Miller, which I haven't seen but hear is stupendously simple in gesture and move. So elegant and profound. And I trust it is. Not simply from what I know of Miller's work, but what the phrase spending time doing things suggests. For it alludes to the dailiness of being and seeing and doing. And I think that dailiness, when you start to tap into it, is tremendously elegant and profound. So here's to finding some time to do some things now and then as we step in 2012 with eyes and arms wide open.
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