MUSIC
Do The Isolation Rag. Dance Like Your Life Depended On It.
Here’s some music for you. We can all do it. We must if we’re to survive.
Turn on your favorite music. Play it loud and proud. Take it outside if you want, but only in your back yard. All by yourself.
Then start dancing. Let your arms and legs fly. Dance like nobody’s watching.
Because, hopefully, nobody is.
We want everybody else cozied up in their own crib, doing the social-distancing jam to their own drummer. All by themselves as far away from their peeps as they can get without falling off the earth.
Not because we don’t love everybody, but because we do. And we want our loved ones around for a very long time.
And they want us up in their business, too, even if they don’t know it. Because this is the time when we need each other. Just not right next to each other.
So this is the time to do all that stuff that we say we don’t have time for.
You say you’re too worried about the paycheck you’re not getting to let loose with some moves. Or your kids are driving you to the ER and you’re not even sick. Or, the love of your life won’t live to see another day if he/she doesn’t stop thinking so loud!!!!!!!
I hear you, my lovelies. You got all my feelz on being cooped up with the one you vowed to love for better or worse but not for self-quarantining. But here’s the thing. We’re all in the same boat.
We’re losing sleep about our jobs. About how we’re going to pay our rent and buy our food. And take care of our kids and our grandmas if they get sick.
And we know worse things could happen that we can’t even think about.
But that’s where the Isolation Rag comes to our rescue. With some uplifting tunes we can get lost in the music for a minute or two. And when you’ve come to the end of the set? Well, play it again.
Just make sure nobody’s watching. Cause now’s the time, time for me-time. Time for family time, honey-time. Just not friends time.
In case you need inspiration, here are a few tracks to get you on your feet. No matter what generation you’re from, you’ll find something to get your toes tapping. Something to send you looking for your own playlist.
The song doesn’t matter. It’s the uplift we need. What’s better than music and dancing. Get on your feet and do the Isolation Rag.
We’re all doing it with you. You just can’t see us. But we’re all in this together, whether we’ve got two left feet, glide across the dance floor like Fred Astaire, or lay down a beat like Beyonce.
Stay healthy my peeps. But do it all by yourself. I thank you, and the whole world thanks you.
The Sting
The iconic theme song from the ’70 era award-winning movie, The Sting, helped people get through the last pandemic in 1918. It’s ragtime, the syncopated craze popularized by Scott Joplin. Just a few bars will have you kicking your heels, which pretty much describes the style of dancing that accompanied The Maple Leaf Rag and my favorite, The Entertainer.
Jive
In The Mood
Glenn Miller put a generation of wartime teens in the mood to dance and got them through some rough years with his unique sound. Some compare our current crisis to World War II, so I thought I’d resurrect this sound that I’ve loved ever since I heard my sister play it on her 78s while she wrote letters to her GI boyfriend fighting in Italy. After they’d been married fifty some years, she claimed it was her prayers that brought him home safely. I’ll put in a good word to her tonight. I’m sure she’s at the right hand of someone important in Heaven. I’ll ask her to use her pull to help us now to get us through our current battle.
In The Mood, cover by Larry Elgart
Rock and Roll
Now we’re getting to my music. With the exception of the jumps, I wore those skirts and sweaters and had all those moves.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
If anybody can get us up on our feet and out of the doldrums is our Whitney. I don’t know if she had the best moves, but with that voice and that smile, I’d dance with her, every day and twice on Sunday.
Proud Mary
I don’t know if anybody inspires me or moves me as much as Tina Turner. Get up and show your stuff.
Rainbow Song
Just when we need a rainbow, here comes Kermit. Grab your sweetie and take a waltz around the dance floor.
Stay safe, my friends. #Weareallinthistogether.
I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status in several categories. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.
