{"id":93108,"date":"2016-01-01T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=93108"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:49:29","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:49:29","slug":"a-dance-to-the-music-of-time-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/01\/a-dance-to-the-music-of-time-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dance to the Music of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_83408\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/twist.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-83408\" class=\"wp-image-83408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/twist.jpeg\" alt=\"twist\" width=\"600\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/twist.jpeg 660w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/twist-300x213.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-83408\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Do the Twist!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Back when I was at my loneliest, I decided it would be a good idea to force myself to do all sorts of things alone. It\u2019s not that I had an aversion to solitude: I\u2019ve always enjoyed, for instance, dining solo, and I like watching movies without the pressure of other peoples\u2019 reactions. But that was not enough; that was too easy. If it was not galling, if it didn\u2019t make me feel acutely self-conscious, somehow it didn\u2019t count. Accordingly, I started singing karaoke and riding carousels and seeing bands with grim determination. I won\u2019t pretend this phase lasted long, but it was horrible while it did. I still can\u2019t hear the song \u201cVeni, Vidi, Vici\u201d without a pang.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The point was not to meet anyone; I shunned company. It was some combination of self-improvement and self-punishment. One June evening, I determined that I would go dancing. I didn\u2019t want to\u2014of course I didn\u2019t want to, I didn\u2019t want to do any of it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/06\/a-dance-to-the-music-of-time\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read More &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year! Back when I was at my loneliest, I decided it would be a good idea to force myself to do all sorts of things alone. It\u2019s not that I had an aversion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20653],"tags":[1803,12511,13317,8032,7011,46,125,17296,16786,607,17297],"class_list":["post-93108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2015","tag-bars","tag-city-life","tag-dancing","tag-first-person-2","tag-loneliness","tag-music","tag-new-york-city","tag-nightlife","tag-socializing","tag-subway","tag-the-twist"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cure Your Loneliness. 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