The forgotten dance

Sometimes questioning and analysing a subject too much only ends up making us self-conscious and suspicious of each other.

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Once upon a time, there was a millipede who loved to dance. The millipede possessed great skill at creating a rippling motion throughout its body, making graceful, gentle waves that moved forwards and backwards, simply by shifting its weight from its upper body to its lower body and vice versa. Everyone in the community was very impressed with the millipede’s ability to do this.

Soon, the millipede’s dance moves became so popular that creatures from faraway lands traversed miles and miles to witness it for themselves. Not only did they cheer on the millipede, many tried to copy its dance moves. However, no one came close to imitating the incredible dancing millipede.

One day, the story of the millipede reached Queen Bee. Intrigued, the Queen instructed her red ant army to summon the millipede to present itself before her. She wanted to see for herself if the millipede’s dance was as amazing as her royal counsellors reported.

After days of travelling across the forest, the millipede finally reached the courtyard of the castle hive.

“Dance!” the Queen demanded.

And the millipede began its slow groove, gently curling and pushing its body to create the distinctive, fluid wave that mesmerised everyone.

As the millipede’s incredible dance routine came to an end, the Queen Bee could be heard buzzing frantically, clearly ecstatic at the performance before her very eyes.

“How do you do it?” the Queen gushed.

“I do not know, my Queen. I just do,” the millipede answered humbly.

“Rubbish!” the Queen buzzed. “Come on, share your secret with me and I shall reward you handsomely.”

Instantly, the millipede was filled with a desire of someday being lord and master of an empty hive – one it could call home with at least a dozen black ants at its beck and call.

“Err…first I rest my body on the ground. And then…err…I thrust my hips forward. Uhm…then I…uhm…curl my legs and strengthen my grip while stretching my body….and then I move my left leg…err…” the millipede found it really hard to explain the moves that came naturally to it.

“When you keep your hips forward, do you stretch your body or do you just curl your legs?” asked the Queen.

“Errr…”

“How about when you move – do you move your first left leg or your second left leg or is it your 137th left leg? Or perhaps you move all of them simultaneously? On second thought, do you move the first half of your left legs before the second half of your left legs?” the Queen Bee was determined to find out every single detail.

“Uhm….err….I…I am so sorry my Queen,” the millipede shook its head, “I really do not know. I mean I do not remember.”

The millipede found itself immediately banished from the castle and returned home without any reward in hand. But it’s sadness did not last long, for a group of insects were eagerly awaiting the millipede’s return, wanting to witness its great dance moves for themselves.

“Oh great dancer millipede , please do show us your amazing talent,” they pleaded in unison.

The moment the millipede took its first step, it began memorising its own dance moves. Suddenly it became too conscious of every step and move it made. The more conscious it got, the more difficult it became for it to perform the dance moves that prior to this day, came naturally to it. The millipede tried extremely hard to dance as it used to but it wasn’t easy anymore.

We Malaysians, are like that poor millipede. For years we danced gracefully to our own tune. It came almost naturally to us to respect, understand, care and love each other as we lived within our community. Our differences, our fears and insecurities never mattered until we were told about them, encouraged to analyse them.

“Who are the owners of the land?”

“Who were the slaves?”

“Who fought for independence?”

“Who would leave when disaster strikes and who would stay and fight?”

“Who has their homeland elsewhere and who does not?”

“Who are the majority whose words carry more weight?”

“Who are the privileged ones?”

Once we began this questioning and analysing, we began sinking deeper and deeper into our own dark and murky thoughts. Today, we have forgotten how to live together harmoniously like we used to.

Like the millipede, we have become too conscious of who our neighbours are and what goes on inside their minds – are they plotting some ill plans against us? Do they think they are superior to us while in our own corrupted minds, we think ourselves superior to them?

Today, it is becoming harder and harder to accept our Malaysian counterparts as our brothers and sisters because subconsciously all we see are our differences.

We have all become the self-conscious millipede.

We have forgotten our unity dance.