After several agonizing weeks listening to my daughters complain, Master P and his partner, Ashley, were finally eliminated from competition on "Dancing With The Stars."
For weeks my 6-year-old has been exclaiming, "He doesn't wear the right shoes!" and last week, when Giselle Fernandez was eliminated after dancing a fabulous rhumba, it took me fifteen minutes to get them to calm down.
I have been doing a lot of work with them to get them to understand that it's a competition, but it's also supposed to be fun, and a game. Perhaps I have a couple of serious ballroom dancers in the making, but I have been using this as a lesson in kindness, compassion, fairness, and respect.
While P clearly did not belong in a dance competition, he still deserved admiration for stepping in at the last minute and committing to the competition. He also did not just step in to be eliminiated -- he did it to show people that you can try something completely new, and it's okay for people to see you not master it. (Master it..Master P...heh heh: unintentional. I promise.)
There is no question that Stacy is the best ballroom dancer in the bunch, with the knack for the sport. She probably will not be willing to give up the money she gets in wrestling, but she could easily take up ballroom dance and quickly become a top competitor. It is exciting to see someone excel at something besides their profession, and is a good reminder that everyone can be good at a lot of things.
We do tend to lock people into a box, expecting them to always be the same thing. We, as a public, are especially guilty of doing that with celebrities.
Perhaps the next time we are suspicious and dismissive of a favorite actor trying a new kind of role, or of someone we know announcing they are going to change careers, we should remember "Dancing With The Stars." These are people who chose to challenge themselves with something new, and succeeded.
Even Master P.
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