Piano Dance – Chapter 36

Dancing Through Life

This is the final back story for each of the 36 chapters of Piano Dance. After this, there will be stories of interesting people I met after the book was completed. Chapter 36 was an explanation of the origin of the title. It told of Bob, my former brother in law, and his technique of making everyday activities into a dance. Bob was 8 years older than I, so he was a role model for me. To me he seemed the world’s expert on everything that was important in life: sailboat racing, sports car racing, and girls.

Bob did not excell in high school, so he went to a less-than-stellar college in the deep south in the early sixties. When the Freedom Riders came through, he was interested in finding out what they were doing. He was filmed by a local TV station talking with some of them, which resulted in his being expelled from the college. His father was an editor of a Washington DC newspaper, so Bob took up the family occupation. In those days, one did not need a college education to become a newspaper reporter. Bob got a job with the Salisbury Times, a small town paper on the eastern shore of Maryland. A cub reporter would be both a photographer and writer.

During the civil rights movement, he would take pictures and write up stories for the paper. He was in Cambridge, Maryland one day taking pictures of European Americans rioting and beating African Americans who were demonstrating for the right to vote. The European Americans did not like having their behavior photographed and a group started chasing Bob. He ran down a street to his car and jumped in, locking the doors, but his car was facing the mob, so his escape route was blocked. The rioters rocked the car in an attempt to overturn it, but it was a Corvair and the center of gravity was so low that they were unable to do it. Eventually they go tired of trying and went back to the easy targets up the street.

Over the next few years, Bob gained experience and skill. He was eventually hired by the Washington Star newspaper in the 1970’s, where he wrote a daily column. One day he was in the lobby when a reporter ran in the front door, heading to his desk to grab his camera, so he could get a scoop on a story. He saw Bob and yelled, “Quick, Bob! Call me a cab!”

Bob thought to himself, “I’ve waited all my life for this opportunity.” he pointed at the reporter and yelled, “You’re a cab!”

Bob eventually started a syndicated column that was run in several newspapers.

Transcendental Meditation

I purposely have not written a lot about my fiancée, so as to respect her privacy. One thing I will tell you, is that she is a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. After years of training, she was certified by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself. She has taught many people in the central coast of California. Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been extensively studied, with hundreds of published peer-reviewed studies finding that it has unique results in improving health, happiness, creativity, success, longevity, and satisfaction in relationships and work. You can access some of this information at TM.org.

Many other types of meditation market themselves as though this research applied to their techniques. It does not. As a result, many people are discouraged that the meditation they practice does not deliver these improvements. The research has been done comparing the types of meditation, and no other technique is close to delivering the results of TM. The science shows that TM is unique in delivering these benefits.

Thank you for Persisting

Thank you for reading all of these posts. I think you deserve some sort of prize and recognition. I haven’t decided what it should be, yet, but if you have any suggestions, please fill out a Contact form. If an autographed copy of Piano Dance is enough, I would be happy to send one to you. Just let me know. Thanks a lot, Edward Klein.