Restful Futon: A Dance

I spend hours on the futon couch in my living room. Its seat is narrow enough that the futon supports my back when I sit on it, and it is long enough that I can stretch out to rest in it. I do all my work sitting on it, surf the internet, write email, gaze out the window, and have long conversations with my husband. When I can’t keep my eyes open at the dinner table, but it is too early to go to bed, I will lie on the couch to nap and possibly still catch some of the conversation in the dining room.

The prompt for this dance had several parts. First, we had to write a response to “To move is to live. To live is to move.” In part, I wrote: “Even the molecules move, constantly rearranging. When we move, we celebrate life—dancing, walking, stretching, running, prancing, hugging, talking, skiing. When we withdraw, we slow down, reduce movement, but the breath continues, even in sadness.”

Next, we had to choose a site that inspired us, that we were drawn to, or that made us comfortable, and write about that. I wrote about the futon. Then, we were supposed to choose words we liked from what we wrote and use them and the site to create our dance. The two words I chose were “support” and “rearrange.” The futon supported me, and, occasionally, I supported myself, while my body constantly rearranged itself—the calmness and comfort of support continually mixing with the restless life-force of rearranging.