I am a crazy fellow who raised his poor children with a healthy dose of Pingu videos. There are few things finer in life than learning about right and wrong from a Swiss children's show about penguins.
As they watched about Pingu and his family, I discovered a brilliant song by a British EDM band called Eskimo Disco. Those fine folks had somehow managed to get new Pingu footage for a music video, for their song called "7-11".
I immediately played it for the whole family, and it began a wonderful tradition we started calling "Late Night Dance Party", where the kids would wildly prance around to a song of my choice before they went to bed.
"Look at my cool moves!" my son would say. "Hey, watch this!" my daughter would respond. They would spin and twirl, with no worries about anything else.
What I loved about all of it so much was that they were finding happiness without any concern for what the world thought of them. They were simply being themselves. It will, to my dying day, remain one of my most precious memories.
They've grown older now, and any mention of "Late Night Dance Party" makes them roll their eyes. That's fine. I saw them, if only for a moment, not caring if what they did would make them popular, or rich, or important to anyone else. I saw them before all of the presumption, before all of the foolish social games they had to play, before all of the disappointment and uncertainty that came from defining themselves by imposed standards.
I think of those great moments now gone, and all I can do is wish that they will one day rediscover that time for themselves. I gave them what I could. They helped me to renew myself, and I pray that the memory of that time will eventually help them to renew their own lives, at that moment when they most need it.
Written in 1/2016
Eskimo Disco, "7-11" (2005)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7RcqRmBlIQ
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