AND WHAT YOU'VE DANCED
Danny Motola
Seventy-three years ago at age thirteen, I began to write; mostly letters to my family who at that moment resided 3000 miles south in Mexico City. It was my bridge between two countries, two languages, and two worlds. Without knowing it then, my career as a writer began. Those were the years of discovery, where my parents supplied the finances so that their son could become somebody in this world.
This book is about observations, stories, adventures, hobbies and home-grown thinking. It also contains a chapter about my observations of our government. It is a collection of individual pieces written through the fourth quarter of my life. As a young man I became like many others of my age, a person who wanted to change the world. Irreverent and curious I questioned everything and everybody. It got me in hot water at times.
Many of the old philosophers influenced my thinking. Two of the contemporary ones connected with my psyche and their books are like a bible to me; I have them close by. As far as the style of this book, I was very much impressed with Robert Fulghum who wrote: “All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten.” In tongue and cheek he takes a common event and transforms it into a story. And like his book, you can open it at any page and find something worth while to think about. It is not a story or a novel. It has no beginning. It has no end.
One special parable: simplify son simplify, and one old Mexican saying; And what you danced, who can take it away, are the foundation of my thinking. Read on and my hope is that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Danny Motola