I've been told that I'm a terrible follower ... (Hexagram 17)

... by my husband, who's alpha-male gorgeous on a dance floor. He sweeps me up and moves me ... and I jam up the gears! I can't seem to help it -- I am simply a klutz at anything that remotely resembles dirty dancing. My man finds my clonking both irksome and hilarious; we look great at weddings until we try to dance to a demanding groove -- he flows, I jerk ... We eventually give up, sputtering over the joke. (Let me just say that I have thwonked a few noses while being twirled over the years.)


Give me a floor alone or with some free-dancing friends, and I can swirl like a dervish, but when I'm in a man's arms and the tunes are funky ... Don't fence me in!

Now slooow the music down, and let us rest in the sway ... and then I'll consent to being moved. Then, I will follow ... then, I will flow.


... How about you, dear reader? What's your habit à deux when you're being led -- and if you're the one who leads, what is your tone?


Hexagram / Principle #17 is all about following ... and leading. How do we follow; how do we lead? How do we teach; how do we learn?

How do we adapt outward from the middle of things (Hexagram 15), where not a lot is happening and all is calm, to an edge of excitement (Hexagram 16) that calls us to move or be moved?


Reader, what kind of dancer are you?