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I
don’t know about you, but sometimes certain things strike me as being very
strange and odd. For example, the salary for sports figures. It is well known
that baseball, football and basketball players make a lot of money. I mean a lot
of money. This isn’t any big secret to anyone whose is alive and breathing.
These individuals have to be in excellent physical shape and must train long and
hard to be able to endure the kind of punishment they receive in playing their
individual sports. Their lifestyles are often as fast as the games they play.
And as such it’s not uncommon for them to burn out early in their years and
open up a car dealership in your neighborhood. In fact, there’s probably one
or two being built close by your house at this very minute. No I would expect
that the burn out rate on these people is extremely high. What is surprising to
me is that there are any numbers of physically challenging sports that pay very
small amounts of money. Specifically I’m talking about professional ballroom
dancing.
The other night I’m surfing the tube looking
for something worthwhile in the great video wasteland and I happen upon a
ballroom dance contest. If you have never seen one of these, you need to watch
one the next time you get a chance. These people have to be in tiptop shape to
do what they do for these things. This stuff is tough. In several of the
interviews with the contestants, they made statements such as …."Well, we
work out for a couple of hours a day, then practice our dancing at least 4 hours
every day." Now, the way I calculate that statement, these people are
working on this stuff for at least 4-6 hours each and every single day of the
week. I’m wondering if football and baseball players put forth that level of
effort? In addition to all of this, the top prize money for this contest was a
mere $10,000. How many of these can they win a year? The costumes and travel
have to cost a good deal. Maybe they just love performing and not trying to make
a killing on the money. Who knows?
Things like this always disturb me for some
reason. I mean, for instance where do they practice? If you’re having to
travel all over the country to these various events, and you don’t make very
much money, then what kind of a hotel room can you get? I’ve never been in a
Holiday Inn yet, that’s big enough for me to dance in or at least for very
long. Besides, if you played any music to dance by, the guys in the next room
always start beating on the walls and then after fifteen minutes or so the
police will show up, or at least that’s what I’ve been told. Most lower
priced or ‘reasonable’ hotels don’t have any big rooms anywhere around. So
where do these people go? Oh, well enough of that.
Since I am rhythmically challenged, I know that
professional dancing will never be my ticket to greatness. However, I do offer
an alternative. You recall several months ago, I wrote about a stray dog we
adopted. Well, when I’m watching this dance contest program when Buddy sits
up, takes notice, starts wagging his tail and howling. It’s kind of like
he’s really interested in what’s going on here. Some years ago, I suggested
that if we could only teach our pets to get over their stubborn streak and say a
few words in English, we’d all be much better off …in a financial sense.
Obviously nothing ever came of that since none of our animals ever expressed in
interest in talking to us about anything. Maybe they thought it was beneath them
or something or maybe that we didn’t appear to have anything interesting to
discuss, I don’t know.
Anyway, I decided to see if maybe it would be
possible to get old Buddy and our favorite cat interested in ballroom dancing. I
kind of envisioned it that they would start off kind of simple with something
like a waltz and then work up to the more difficult routines. I started playing
waltzes during the day to see if it sparked any interest, but I’m sorry to
report that they showed absolutely no interest in learning the basic steps.
Thinking they might be of more Latin influence than they appear, I changed the
music to tangos, sambas and the mambo. Both continued to run away and hide under
the beds. To tell you the truth, I was saddened by this turn of events. I had
envisioned fame and fortune with Buddy and Abigail dancing their way to stardom.
Why, if they would only get over this mental block, they could become the next
animal versions of Fred and Ginger. I explained to them both that this stubborn
streak was hurting them more than it was me. If they would only try and get used
to this idea, then once they were discovered they could have their own rooms,
groomers, and any choice of gourmet pet food.
But, alas after several weeks of non-stop bongo
and trumpets I abandoned the idea. This wasn’t going to pan out. Besides the
neighbors were banging on the side of the house. I’m beginning to believe that
pets have a limited view of their potential. Maybe self esteem classes for cats
and dogs would be a winner? I’ll put some thought into this and see what I can
do. I leave you to ponder this final thought…"Why is the third hand on a
watch called the second hand."? I don’t know about that..If you do write
me at www.pearyperry.com. If you
don’t well, you’re no help either.
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