I Hope They Dance

Janelle Peregoy finds her hopes for her young children summed up in the lyrics of a country hit from two decades ago.

Early in the pandemic, I started streaming Zumba and aerobics videos over YouTube. This was a new revelation for me as I detest gyms (they smell) and am generally skeptical about any form of exercise that doesn’t require fresh air. At least if I was going to be trapped indoors with small children day in and out, I figured that I might as well have a decent beat in the background.

Fast forward to today: I still do these videos. The time passes quickly in a haze of sweat and choreography that always seems just beyond my reach. Somewhere along the way, my 4-year-old decided that he wants to do them with me.

“It’s time to dance, Mommy!”

Daniel’s style of dance can best be described as some shimmying with the occasional march. Often, he throws in a high-five for good measure. Sometimes, he spends most of our session simply jumping off the couch into a waiting pile of pillows. If I get down onto the floor to stretch, he barrels his whole body towards me and I have little choice but to bench press my little guy as he collapses into a fit of giggles.

A recent TV show referenced Lee Ann Womack’s song, "I Hope You Dance." This hit from the early 2000s is about an openness to life and a willingness to take risks. I hadn’t heard the song in years but was thrilled to listen to it again. A couple of lines have managed to withstand the test of time.

I think about my boys and the world they are growing up within. They are still young and are yet to be too swayed by external pressure. Thankfully if Daniel wants to sway along to his mom’s workout videos, that is unabashedly what he is going to do.

Yet there is a moment, in the not-so-distant future, where my boys will no longer be the arbiters of their own influence. Beyond the realm of everyday peer pressures, their developing brains will be assaulted by social media. They will be subject to a world whose capacity for fear, division, and polarization seems to increase with every passing year. Their generation will be squarely facing the great existential crisis that is climate change.

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If my boys can tap into their inner reserves, the God within them, they will be able to discern real and authentic love and relationship from all the noise. #CatholicMom

There will be so much sorrow. There will be so many distractions. There will be so many barriers to becoming the persons that God has created them so perfectly to be.

And yet, there is dance. There is laughter. There is connection. There is community. There is Church. Ultimately, there is an internal knowing of God as our source, of Jesus as our model and as the Holy Spirit as our life force.

If my boys can tap into their inner reserves, the God within them, they will be able to discern real and authentic love and relationship from all the noise. They will understand that living a life in service to others, in the way that Jesus taught us again and again, will require sacrifice. It may require suffering and loss. Yet the alternative isolation is far worse.

As for Lee Ann Womack, her words continue to resonate.

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