Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

BBC carried this series called "Day in Afghanistan: Daily Lives". The (really terrific) idea is to document one day in the lives of different Afghani people: teachers, dairy farmer, orphanage head etc.

Here's one that caught my eye ("Naseer Mansoor, 15, from Mazar-e-Sharif"):

"All the boys were making jokes and laughing because the teachers weren't around."

So now boys raise hell in the schools of Mazar-e-Shariff. How cool is that? Freedom tastes sweet. (Moral dilemma #1 for me: are wars inherently evil?)

But this next one is even cooler:

"I am really looking forward to going to the party. But there's one problem. My family always force me to dance at wedding parties, but I am not a good dancer. I've tried but I have failed. One time they put me on the stage and I just couldn't do it".

Naseer, you speak not just for yourself, but ALL boys blessed with two, sometimes even three, left feet.

Even my family often forces me to dance. Not just one time, but several times they put me on stage and only after half a bottle of gimme-whatever-that-is is consumed, can I dance.

Here's to Naseer Mansoor, to freedom in Afghanistan and to all my brothers who have tried to dance but failed.