dancing in september

This morning, while listening to Day 6 on CBC, one of the segments contrasted the  current U.S. election to the previous one 4 years ago, distinctively calling both campaigns (Romney's and Obama's) joyless. In other words, uninspired. I've been pondering on this issue all day today, the magnitude of the term joyless deeply resonating. It is not my intention to judge anybody, and most certainly, I understand that a happy-go-lucky attitude every single minute of our life is definitely not intrinsic to what is considered "normal" human behaviour. However, the vocable joyless reverberates with an immense lack of passion, a disinterest, a disillusion of "the craft". It's tragic.

Passion for our craft, regardless if it is politics, engineering or shoe design is, in my opinion, what propels vocations towards inspired, successful careers. In my experience, the best lessons for this "can do" attitude come from my  undergrad years. Privileged  with a Bauhaus-based program, we were expected to achieve the most with the least, and use both research and all personal experiences (the good, the bad, the necessary) to catapult our artwork, to push it to the next level, founding our design ethos on versatility, originality, functionality and (here's that word again) passion for the craft. In my opinion, this passion comes from experiencing the everyday, from our loved ones,  from our surroundings, from our likes and even our dislikes... from September.

Do you recognise the post's title as a line from the song "September" (released in 1978!) by Earth, Wind & Fire? Perhaps you have no idea of what I'm talking about. Not to worry, what matters is that we are a bit over a week into September, and I'm just catching up to getting the celebration started, because, simply put, September makes me ridiculously happy. Here are four very good reasons as to why that is:

• One: It brings back sanity and the quotidian that inadvertently went missing during the summer (click here to listen to the most eloquent rendition to September by Tanya Davis, gifted poet).
• Two: My dear friend D, weaver extraordinaire, and yours truly celebrate our birthdays during these days.
• Three: F and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks.
• Four: Mexico, the motherland, celebrates its independence on the 16th, but the party starts at 11:00 p.m. on the 15th (click here to see the bicentennial celebration in 2010, minute 3:04 is where ceremony begins).

A blissful heart nourishes the body, the mind and the soul. Adversity tends to do that, too—the ying, the yang. Here's an excellent example of what passion for the craft looks like, all kitsch and lsd-esque glory included. We are dancing in September.