American society tries to tell us that Monday is the worst day of the week. To fall into this trap is to ruin one seventh of your life. This past week has been an experiment in expanding the approach in the Journal to include short video clips as meditations. We got such a postive response, that I am offering for your Monday enjoyment a chance for you to dance with the great Gene Kelly for two minutes. Click on this circular icon > 
. It’s from Reel Classics and it will transport you into the 1952 musical, Singin’ in the Rain. And then learn why this clip is not just about a fellow singin’ & dancin’…
Kelly’s performance invites us to let go of our worries for awhile and engage joy. Forget about umbrellas, let go of getting wet, release our vice grip on caution for a few moments. Live closer to the world.
Kelly’s performance is marvelous because of his great dancing and singing, and because he is doing something so outrageous. Who, among us, would walk out into the rain in the middle of New York City in a coat and tie and…dance? It’s so outrageous, and so appealing.
In an effort to create sterile environments, modern hospitals seal off patients into closed-windowed, climate-controled, flourescent-lighted rooms filled with electrical equipment. The rest of contemporary American life seems to seek the same thing. We seal ourselves in climate controlled homes, drive climate controlled cars, eat in climate-controlled restaurants. The idea of opening the window in the summer may be anathema to many. "Oh my God," some would say, "you’ll waste air conditioning!"
And so, we seal ourselves from some of the truth of life and anesthetize ourselves from some of life’s reality. And then, there’s Gene Kelly – just singin’ and dancin’ in the rain.
Happy Monday.
-Erie Chapman
(This journal entry is now available as a podcast by clicking the "download journal" link.)
Download journal_february_5_2007.mp3
Journal of Sacred Work 
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