Dancing brings health and happiness

I Dance Therefore I Am

A memoir of Scotland, America and dancing by

Robin Edward Poulton

These are my children Catherine Leila and Edward dancing The Gay Gordons at their uncle’s wedding. Uncle Rory is dancing behind them with his bride Maureen Wiltshire. Behind Edward’s right arm is his grandfather Dr Edward Maclean Poulton, dancing off into the distacne with Maureen’s mother. That was 30 years ago. Liam and Isabelle – to whom the book is dedicated - are Edward’s children.

Essays on Scottish dancing for Isabelle and Liam and Roísín

to help them love the joys of their Celtic heritage, sharing stories from Europe, Africa and America about dancing with beautiful women in beautiful St Andrews Scotland

“Cogito, ergo sum” – “I THINK, therefore I am,” was the explanation offered by French philosopher-mathematician René Descartes for the nature of humanity. This, my darling grand children Liam and Isabelle, is the message that your French teachers will drum into you as you get older: “Je pense, donc je suis!” But beware! I am no fan of Descartes, a mathematician-philosopher whose rigidity of thought has distorted the French education system into a math-fanatic generator of elitism.

Descartes’ ideas have been twisted by many false prophets and political movements. Instead I recommend you all to look at philosophical models promoting egalitarianism, human rights and social justice. Notably I recommend the Scottish Enlightenment ideas of Francis Hutcheson, and his admirer John Stuart Mill who believed that all human actions should aim to promote “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” This rule is known as “Utilitarianism” and it has guided me since my moral philosophy studies at St Andrews. Briefly: whatever you decide to do should not satisfy your immediate, short-term desires but should also take account of its impact on the happiness (or un-happiness) of yourself and of all those who are close to you.

This is a non-egotistical philosophy of life, for it requires you to think of other people’s happiness before you act. It begins with “Do No Harm” and ends with a commitment to caring for other people. Follow the rule, and you will avoid being dominated by your own ego while improving the lives of others. The word “happiness” (however you define it) leads inevitably to laughter and to dancing.

Malian philosophers and griots believe men are different from other animals thanks to KUMA, The WORD: the means of expressing thought, reason and emotion. St John the Evangelist agreed: “In the beginning was The Word,” says St John’s Gospel. Scottish Enlightenment economist-philosopher David Hume had a different explanation: PASSION, said Hume, drives us. It is desire and not reason or thinking that governs human actions. “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions,” wrote Hume, who was an empiricist: someone who looks at the world as it really is, and not – like many French philosophers - as they think it ought to be structured. I am an admirer of David Hume, whose work, like that of the Enlightenment economist Adam Smith, I studied as a student of political economy in St Andrews University. If passion guides us, then passion has guided me to be a dancer.

Most of all I try to follow the Utilitarian precepts of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). “The greatest happiness of the greatest number” is a good rule for life, but Mill was good on other subjects as well. For example, he was the first man to introduce a debate in the House of Commons about votes for women. Like me, he believed in equality between men and women. J.S. Mill considered that women in his day were treated no better than slaves and he tried to improve their rights.

A broader aspect of Utilitarianism was developed by his friend and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) who influenced Mill’s thinking. Bentham inspired the creation of London University, the first to open its doors to all regardless of race, class, creed, or political belief. This is celebrated by his “auto-icon” = a glass case in which you can meet Bentham in person in the entrance to University College London… or at least his mummified self fully clothed and seated on a chair. Brilliant!

Bentham rejoiced at the liberation of slaves by France in 1789, arguing that all “sentient beings” deserve to be treated properly … including animals. Rather than considering them as inferior because of their inability to reason, Bentham applied ethical utilitarianism to animals as well as humans. He said that because animals suffer, their happiness and wellbeing is relevant to “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.”

This is an ecologist’s philosophical position that I share. I have tried to adopt this approach throughout my life in America, Europe and Africa.

West Africans dance and laugh to show they are happy. Dance and laughter: I love them, and both are linked to music. Africans say that dancing is an ongoing conversation between dancers and musicians. West Africans dance to express happiness and celebration, but also for healing and restoration of the mind and body. Here are some Senegalese proverbs about dancing:

We dance, therefore we are.

When the rhythm changes, so must the dance.

To dance is to be healed, reconciled and restored.

My own passions are DANCING and MUSIC.

These skills set humans apart from the animals, every bit as much as thought or speech. Animals think and some animals dance: but they do not dance in the way that men and women dance. Dancing adds cultural refinement to Hume’s philosophical approach. In Scottish and Contra dance I try to maintain a conversation with the musicians, who need feedback from the dancers. Dancing also allows me to interact with beautiful, intelligent women - another of my passions – and this interaction adds greatly to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. How many women have I made happy? Masses, and they all made me happy as well. It is impossible to name all the beautiful women with whom I have danced, but I honor them all by dedicating the chapter headings of this book to some exceptional women.

Laughter is a key to happiness, so I have also tried to make this book amusing. One of our family passions is the limerick. My own father used to chant limericks, rather like Gregorian plainsong. It was less melodious than the monks in church, but a lot more amusing. So from time to time, I include a relevant (or irrelevant) limerick. Here is one of my father’s favorites, related to the Highland cattle of Scotland with their beautiful long coats and gentle demeanor, which can change in the springtime:

Let X equal Cow.

Then, if Y’s a Bull,

On meeting a Cow it’s advisable

To determine its sex

Lest, what seems to be X,

Should really turn out to comprise a Bull.

Pordic, Brittany and Richmond, Virginia, Summer 2018

poultonrobin@gmail.com