MATAHEKO, Ghana – Day in and day out, we constantly seek to dance.
A chord of harmony fills our ears. It is soothing. We are moved.
So we dance.
We live our lives like this dance.
Browsing through the mall, familiar tunes of comfort sing when that blouse hits a certain hue or those shoes feel like they were made just for you or that car grips the road just the way you like.
For whatever reason, we are enthralled by things that are aesthetically pleasing to our eyes, smooth to our touch.
The item asks us for a dance and we take its hand.
Is it the song that we like or the dance steps?
Who knows? Who cares?
We shall dance, nevertheless.
At first, the act is a combination of practicality and enjoyment. The purchases are at, one point or another, necessities.
But necessity ends quickly. And something else begins.
The dance starts.
You know you have danced enough, but it is calling you to the floor. It is lonely without you.
You tell yourself, why not? And you begin to dance again.
The dance continues through many stores and shops, on many days and evenings, month after month, year after year.
Something attractive but totally unnecessary meets the eye–something you don’t by any means need, but what the heck?
It’s cheap (or not). You get it anyhow, by paper or plastic–whatever currency causes the least friction.
After a while you have so many.
The dance has become a compulsion of some sort. Some of us are eternally lured by the music.
We surround ourselves with beautiful things and things not so beautiful. Some have everlasting allure, and for others, the appeal fades as quickly as we received them.
Do we dance to make ourselves happier, or is the spiel for others?
Does the person who lives and dies with the most toys receive the crown?
Between the battle of reason and impulse, the latter becomes the victor, as most often is the case.
Why do worry your head in self-reflection? It is life, anyhow. Let’s just live in the now and let later come with its own set of circumstances.
Let’s not deny ourselves one last dance today, because who knows if we will be around to dance tomorrow.
