Life is full of new experiences. Things that we never
imagined we’d do yet somehow find ourselves doing. A couple of weekends ago I
found myself doing something for the very first time; calling a Ceilidh – that
is to say shouting out the instructions to a bunch of dances whilst the music
plays. Whilst I’ve been to many Ceilidhs before I have no idea how to lead one,
I don’t even know how the dances go, after all, that’s what the caller is for!
However, the incredible thing about being the caller of Ceilidh is that it
never occurs to the dancers to question what the caller is saying even when he
has no idea what he’s doing! It was amazing! Whatever I said they would do! I
could have said anything! Even things that didn’t make sense – and I did with
surprising regularity, and yet they still tried to follow as I lead.
I should at this point say that despite the description I’m
about to give which probably sounds more like a scene from a post-apocalyptic
thriller than a party, we did all have a tremendous amount of fun, myself
included. I’m not going to lie, there was a tremendous sense of power and
authority standing behind that microphone and watching as everyone did as I
told them. In some ways I felt like a God. And yet despite my subjects
wholehearted attempts to do as I pleased (or perhaps because of this), the
dances still upon occasion descended into anarchy and chaos as the dancers got
themselves into all sorts of messes. I knew what I wanted them to do and yet so
often they weren’t doing it! I must confess that this was usually because of my
inability to communicate the dances clearly, however it wasn’t always my fault!
As I stood there barking out orders I began to realise that
there were many things that caused my dear friends to stray from the instructions
I was giving out. There were all of the distractions of everyone around them.
There was the noise which made it difficult to hear. There were the obstacles
on the dance floor; stray shoes and fallen bodies. There were other dancers who
were getting it wrong and trying to encourage others to follow them. There were
hecklers and there was the frustration of “just not getting it”. “If only they
could keep hold of what I was saying”, I thought. Then I wondered if that’s how
God feels about me as I dance my way through life.
