When was the last time you skipped?  I’m not talking about work, or bills, or your taxes.  Remember that thing you did as a kid that wasn’t quite hopping but wasn’t running either.  Maybe you did it when you had ants in your pants or you remembered mom was making sloppyjoes for dinner.  I’m talking about skipping.  Well I did it for the first time, since I don’t know the fuck when, just a couple of weeks ago.  I was on a camping trip with a very special friend of mine and she suggested, as we were walking through the woods, that we skip.  I grinned, but wasn’t surprised by her suggestion, though I did take pause to think about it.   I was really just trying to remember the last time I had done it.  Before I knew it she was off, and without thinking, I was following her, skipping like a seven year old.  Just like riding a bike, you don’t forget.  The effect it had on me was rapid.  I immediately began to smile and chuckle.  For lack of any better term, I felt like I was playing.  You knew that bit was coming didn’t you.  As an older person I could appreciate certain nuances I didn’t recognize as a child.  The constant rhythm was very soothing, and by the time we had finished we had covered a long of distance in a short time, and it was fun!  I know all of this sounds a bit selfhelpish, but I really think there might be some therapeutic value to skipping.  I recommend you try it.  The next time you’re outside or near a long hallway and no one is looking, or better yet do it in front of a lot of people, just start skipping.  I guarantee euphoric results.  Create your own random act of tomfoolery.  The world might be a better place for it.

P.S. Sorry for the hearts and flowers…

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Comments

Tarv

2004-04-14T13:55:38.000Z

Wow, if asked to describe the mechanics of skipping, I think I’d have a pretty hard time, but yours is pretty much right on…not quite hopping, not quite running, but somewhere in-between.  In spite of its difficult to describe nature, we still all know how to do it.  Oooh, let’s play some duck-duck-goose!

Julie

2004-04-14T14:51:51.000Z

You’re right on the whole playing thing.  Bedlam requires you to do some pretty silly stuff, and at first I felt sheepish, but after you realize everyone else looks just as silly, it becomes a lot of fun.  We’ve played tag (which I hated as a child, but find now is actually fun), Red Light Green Light, and all sorts of silly things I haven’t played in at least 15 years.  Thankfully, there has been NO dodgeball.  I hate dodgeball.  I still have flashbacks to dodgeball.  And I’ve realized that the reason I hated tag is a child is because the fat, slow kid is always the one to get tagged first.  But when you play it with adults, theatre geeks no less, you realize that we were ALL the first one to get tagged as children, and it doesn’t seem so masochistic.  Anyway, let’s cut the mushy shit, someone bring on the sarcasm!