GREEK FESTIVAL, BRISBANE – Australia, 21/100

Obstacle – Simultaneously taking yourself too seriously and not seriously enough

Context

They say “put yourself out there.” I watch, not for the first time, as people whose ability to market themselves get the attention. My reaction is to retreat in pity for the disingenuous attitude of theirs for advancing themselves and mine for drawing back.

The entry fee is $8 but we walk right in. It smells of lamb, honey, and beer, roast capsicum (peppers) and carmelised sugar. A band plays up the hill. Amusement rides cost $30, each, and for twenty more bucks you can get a DVD of yourself on the ride. For five dollars you can try to climb up stairs that keep rotating down and finally let you emerge into a three-story building of doorways and traps. Are those oval-shaped basketball hoops the hawker is encouraging young guys to shoot round balls into?

She can’t go past the dance floor without just one song. He does cartwheels, split jumps, crazy stuff to get the crowd going. Hey, Cowboy! Come on, he says. She doesn’t want to perform, has to feel her way into the dance – she’s not an entertainer. She disappears into the crowd.  But the music surges power into her bones and the DJ calls her out. Spotlights, soloing, children dancing, mob from Townsville going after it, finding old muscles still work. An hour later, sweating, smiling and spent.

Solution – Choose the ecstasy of the real thing

Commenting – It’s never too late to comment on a post.

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