Cormac’s Jump for Joy

When my youngest grandson was almost 5, I took him every Friday to a gymnastic class.  One Friday he saw another class coming in as we were getting ready to leave; it was a dance class and he wanted to watch.  We stayed for about 10 minutes and he asked, “Papa, why can’t I do that instead?” So we went together to get jazz shoes and tap shoes.
  He loved the lessons and after his second class the instructor asked, “Where did he take classes before?  He’s a natural-born dancer.”  He took lessons for about 7 months, but his older brother teased him about “dancing was for girls” and he wanted to stop.
  The musical “Billy Eliot” had just come to Broadway:  I was so moved by that young boy’s joy of dancing that I painted my grandson as a young adolescent still feeling joyful about dance.  When my grandson turned 13, I gave him the painting for his birthday and he immediately hung it in his room — much  to me delight  after 8 years waiting.