I absolutely love Flash mobs... I wish there were more of them!

Posted ~ 13 April 2016 ~
 
Flash mobs touch me so deeply that I can hardly contain my emotions when I watch them on videos.  I sometimes wonder what would happen if I ever found myself actually in the midst of one... I am sure, (having had years of experience of how my emotions “happen”) I would be totally overcome with a surge of confused emotions and cry like a baby.  So often, my happy emotions twist into sad emotions in an instant, and I don’t seem to have any control over the switch inside of my head that does that to me.  I try to understand myself and work out why my emotions are triggered so deeply sometimes, but I don’t even think I could possibly ever have all the answers to the conundrum that is in me.
I’ve attempted to explain below, what I think happens.
After watching a Flash mob video on YouTube, of people singing in a Russian supermarket called, Kalinka Flashmob in Kaliningrad, Russia, I had tears streaming down my face, laughing and crying at the same time... Am I crazy or what? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8nvPjKMDh0
 
This is what I wrote down afterwards, with the intention of trying to explain the overwhelmingly deep surge of emotions to myself:
 
Flash mobs always draw the deepest emotions of gratitude and joy out of me... I don't know what it is about them exactly and I wonder how many others are triggered to feel the same way about them as I do... surely there are many... and the question is, Why?
                                                                                    
I believe that something so powerful happens on a “spiritual level” in the moment when the Flash mob starts... a moment in time where everyone around stops in total surprise and fascination... “What's happening?”   A sense of dawning, and then excitement to be a part of what they are witnessing... anticipation of "What's going to happen next".  Were the actions of a gradually growing group of “well-rehearsed people” are able to evoke such an incredibly “united positive force” of emotional reaction from a random crowd of diverse onlookers, instantly uniting them all in a moment of awe and wonder... joy and peace...
 
And then... as quickly as it all started, it's over, and everyone who was there cheers... a moment of genuine gratitude for the actions of their fellow man... for “the gift” they have just received from strangers, who had only moments before touched their hearts and lives...
 
And then everyone goes on with their lives... but everyone has been changed, even if for that brief moment in time only... or maybe forever as the memories linger and create something new and beautiful in each mind and heart... lifting the consciousness of those who were there to a more transcendent level.
 
Then I think of those who were on the outskirts of the crowd... getting on with their “ordinary lives”... those who missed the Flash mob... untouched... unmoved in the moment... just getting on with their ordinary  lives. 
 
This reminds me of how important it is for us to open our minds and hearts to all that is good, beautiful, right and true around us, no matter what situation we find ourselves in... noticing, acknowledging, absorbing, appreciating and rejoicing in all the little beautiful moments in time that could move us, reassure us, open our minds and hearts and lift us to become that which is greater than what is already.
 
“There's always more”... even Viktor Frankl in all his time in the concentration camp during the Holocaust, noticed the sunsets, birds, flowers and the beauty around him... especially when the immense sufferings he and his inmates endured, caused them to be united even more closely in an ever deepening bond of “unconditional love” that created a greater sense of responsibility towards each other and towards living and life in general.
 
One of my favourite Logotherapy quotes:
 
“In life the opportunities to address oneself to this or that group of values vary from hour to hour. Sometimes life demands of us the realization of creative values; at other times we feel it necessary to turn to the category of experiential values. At one time we are called upon, as it were, to enrich the world by our actions, another time to enrich ourselves by our experiences. Sometimes the demands of the hour may be fulfilled by an act, at another time by our surrendering to the glory of an experience. Man can be “obligated” to experience joy. In this sense a person sitting in a streetcar who has the opportunity to watch a wonderful sunset, or to breathe in the rich scent of flowering acacias, and who instead goes on reading his newspaper, could at such a moment be accused of being neglectful toward his obligations” (Frankl 1986:45) ~ The Doctor and the Soul
 
Below I have added two more examples of how easy it is to bring out the joyful and carefree spirit in others, and how easy it is to unite strangers as friends, even in a brief moment in time.  To me these are so beautiful and I wish with all my heart there was more of this “happiness” going around. 
 
Maybe it is my inner-child sprit (Patty) who is yearning for what never was in her childhood and has often been a struggle to find in my adulthood... I don’t know. 
 
With this train video, which absolutely delights me as does the piano one following it, I wonder what I would have done if I was on that train that day... would I have been able to let down my guard and would I have been able to find the confidence in me, to stand up and dance with the other passengers also, or would I have been like the people who remained in their seats, possibly shutting myself off from the joy, because it might have overwhelmed me to feel that freedom to be “me” in the moment... I just don’t know. 
 
There was a man telling everyone to dance... expecting everyone to dance... and that would have scared me and I might have felt very self-conscious... I might have felt a fool, because someone expected something of me.  My abusers always expected more from me than I ever would have been able to give, and so, when people have expectations of me, I shut down and cease to function on any level of confidence and I am unable to perform normally... whatever normal means anyway!
 
I know I do love to dance and laugh and be happy, but I have never felt totally free to do or be any of these, other than in brief and rare moments in time, especially times spent with my children, grandchildren and family. 
 
This video also sent my emotions rocketing and made me cry.
 
Perth Train Party Video v2!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRa8kuD898M
 
For sure though, if I saw that Piano staircase, I would have used it, danced on it and “Patty” would have surfaced, freely to enjoy it. 
 
So what is the difference...
 
Nobody would have told me I have to... nobody would have been standing there expecting me to do it.  I would not have felt the judgement of others before I had even started, or cared about the strangers passing by... Patty would have been freed in the moment and I probably would have giggled and laughed as I danced up and down those stairs... no tears this time!
 
I wish there was more of this too.
 
For Good Health... Piano Stairs..creative engineering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0lHPRWf9co
 
Thank you for reading and I’m grateful for your sharing with me today.
 
~ Pana