Ballet and Parking Lots

I did not start going to the ballet until late into my forties.  It seemed like something to avoid.  My sister had had ballet lessons.  My daughter had had ballet lessons.  Ballet seemed like an alien feminine pursuit, something to be ignored.  I don't even remember how or why I first went to a ballet, but wow!  We were living in Cincinnati at the time, and the Cincinnati Ballet was exceptional.  I was hooked.  These people floated through the air.  They painted scenes with motion instead of pigments.  They sang with their bodies.

Ballet is not as popular as, say, [fill in the blank].  The people that go to ballet are not just any people.  They have been captured by the magic of a gentle world.  And this was obvious after we left.  The parking garage was awfully badly designed, and very hard to get out of.  Yet, there was no aggressive garage-exiting.  People were polite, and polite beyond anything one might ever see elsewhere.  They waited for their turn to merge into the one lane heading out of the one exit.

Politeness is something kind and human and gracious and civilized.  Politeness behind the wheel was a fitting postscript to the gentleness of dance.

Originally published May 15, 2008.