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Yesterday morning Ali and I were watching Breakin’ and I got to thinking about the current political situation. Stay with me here, it’s about to get a little funky.

I mean fun-kay.

No. No, I mean funky. Sorry.

Breakin’ from IMDb is about

A struggling young jazz dancer (Lucinda Dickey) meets up with two break-dancers. Together they become the sensation of the street crowds.

And during their rise to become the “sensation of the street crowds” they fight dance the rival dance crew. This has become the standard in dance movies as far as I can tell, anyway. Ali watches them all the time whenever they are on cable so I see bits and pieces of these movies and they all have some kind of dance fight in them. They may start out with words and shoves and some of the angriest stares you’ll ever see but they always end in dance fights and each team walks away with a little more respect for the other side.

There all the same. Breakin’, the one with the thug life ballerina, the one with that chick from The Fantastic Four and so on. The model can even be interpreted into other types of movies like the one starring that white guy from Detroit who was popular for a few months in 1999. They all use dance (or rap) to fight their battles and over come great odds like the closing of a neighborhood community center, proving the love of a tough down and out street dancer for the classically trained dancer, and other gripping cultural issues.

And that’s when it hit me. Dance brings people to together.

There has been all these town hall meetings across America dealing with health care reform, something this country desperately needs. Without getting too much into the politics of anything Ali and I have seen what the costs of not having (good) health insurance are and that is something that no American should have to go through.

Now at these town hall meetings I’m sure you’ve seen the news clips of people standing up and screaming their fears and opposition.

(There are many like this video, and worse.)

This is where my genius comes in. Yes. Genius. Are you sitting down for this? Go ahead. Sit. Brace yourself. I’ll wait.

…

All set? Cool.

Forget town hall meetings. By looking at the news all they do is devolve into screaming matches. The only thing that can bring these two sides together? That’s right. Dance.

No more town halls. Only dance halls. I have already written President Obama with my suggestions about dance hall meetings for health care and beyond. No more chairs, no more picket signs, no more battle lines. Only dance floors, pirouettes and pop n’ locks.

Imagine the two sides. Pro-reform, let’s call them The Sharks, and the Pro-Status quo, let’s call them The Jets. Now imagine them dancing. Singing. FOR AMERICA!

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev’rything free in America
For a small fee in America!

Problem solved.

I even think President Obama should get out of his chair and dance while doing his YouTube videos. Nothing helps pass policy like jazz hands.

FOOL! Dancin’ don’t create problems! It solves ‘em!

The whole skit can be found here. If you can only handle a few seconds of this clip, make sure it’s the last 10 seconds.

Field of Dreams. One of my favorite movies ever. I don’t know when I first saw it, I was probably in middle school. But ever since I first saw it, I was hooked.

This time of year, with spring training just behind us and currently being in the first few weeks of the season is a great time for baseball movies on television, Field of Dreams is the only movie I will stop on every time. Ali also knows this. I’ll let her click past just about any other movie that I love, except this one.

Flipping through the channels tonight, I find Field of Dreams. I have to watch it. I love everything about this movie. The story, the execution, the score, everything.

When I watch it, I catch myself smiling as new pieces of the puzzle are reveled to Ray. How he convinces Terrance Mann to come with him (“I’m not showing you my gun!”), when he finds Moonlight Graham walking out late at night and he tells Ray his dream, when he realizes he did this all for his father, his penance.

The last part gets me every time. “Hey Dad… Want to have a catch?” It makes me cry each time I watch it. I don’t even need to hear the line anymore. Once Ray starts talking to his father I get chocked up and the tears start. I’m a sucker for a story about a father and son, and this movie takes the cake. A son, his father, and baseball. What more could there possibly be to create a more magical story?

I don’t know if this movie would have the same impact on me if my father and I didn’t have the type of relationship that we do. We’re very close. We both love baseball and the Yankees, and we bust each other’s chops at any chance we can get. If that bond wasn’t there, and we didn’t share a love of the sport, I don’t know how I would feel about this film. I don’t even want to think about that.

One of the top things on my must do in life list, is get to that field in Iowa. I really wanted to go two years ago during the Netflix Road Show. They showed the movie on a giant screen on the actual field. That would have been amazing, but it was not possible. One day though, I will go to that field.