Dancing The Deep Hum One Woman S Ideas About How To Live In A Dancing Singing Universe

In Dancing the Deep Hum, Connie Pwll examines the sometimes delightful and sometimes painful lessons she has learned in her sixty-five years of life, and humbly presents some ideas about how to live life joyfully. Weaving in and out between the personal and the public, the individual and the whole - the universe, the infinite, and the here and now, she searches for the definition of that unnamable something that hums, uses her own experiences and other people's stories found in books, film and the media, to suggest a set of principles for living that just might bring us personal happiness while moving us toward a solution to the world's ecological and social justice problems.

The chapters in this book reflect on the practice of using narratives to understand individual and social reality. They all reveal dimensions of the same concrete reality: contemporary society of Central South Africa. Except for two, all the chapters originated from research in the program The Narrative Study of Lives, situated in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Each chapter opens a window on an aspect of everyday life in Central South Africa. Each window displays the capacity of the narrative as a methodological tool in qualitative research to open up better understandings of everyday experience. The chapters also reflect on the epistemological journey towards unwrapping and breaking open of meaning. Narratives are one of many tools available to sociologists in their quest to understand and interpret meaning. But, when it comes to deep understanding, narratives are particularly effective in opening up more intricate levels of meaning associated with emotions, feelings, and subjective experiences.

Told with precision, grace and honesty, this book is the tale of one woman s midlife renewal through dance. It shows us how to recognise and celebrate both our strengths and flaws, and how to reignite passion for the everyday. In her 20s, Janet Carlson was a successful competitive ballroom dancer, but she abandoned dancing to raise a family and pursue a more conventional profession and life. 20 years later, she seemed to have it all: two beautiful daughters, a great job, and a handsome, talented husband. Despite all her successes, she felt a terrible void her marriage was deeply troubled, and she was somehow withdrawn in the very midst of her own life. Then, one Valentine s Day her husband gave her ballroom dancing lessons as a gift, and everything changed . . .

Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.