as others see us!

This is Alison, my zumba teacher, who gets my week off to a happy start. I go to a 45 minute class at 9.15, she has already done one at 8.30 and she was game enough to let me take this quick snap of her, hot and sweaty, after an hour and half of hip wiggling. It is raining, and a busy day ahead, so I thought this would make a good blip.

Alison is a dancer, a lovely happy person, and is so good and patient with the - mostly mature - ladies that go to the classes.

I love the class. The dance studio is covered in mirrors, and there is always a bit of gentle jostling to get one of the few spaces where you can't see yourself. I usually manage! I have a good sense of co-ordination and I imagine myself about 40, body flowing to the beat, hips gyrating, graceful arms and looking as elegant as the best salsa dancer in the world.

Then I catch sight of myself as we move across the floor. What do I see? A middle aged lady with a bit of a spare tyre and a crimson face flailing about like a demented duck!

Robert Burns had it right - but who cares!!!

"O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us.
An ev'n devotion!

Robert Burns - 'To a Louse' - final verse.

Burns wrote this after seeing a louse on a fine lady's bonnet at church. The poem berates the louse for daring to find its way onto such a fine article of clothing, instead of on some lowly auld wifie. And the fine lady might not have such airs and graces if she could see what others could see - a flea on her!!!

photography day out tomorrow - urban photography in Glasgow. pray for no rain!