Shenanigans on the Dance Floor • A Tale of Boundaries Expressed and Transgressed
Settle in folks, and let me share a tale of boundaries, as remembered, in no doubt a partial and faulty way.
I’m at an event.
I see a man that I don’t want to engage with at all.
I’ve met him a handful of times and each time he transgressed boundaries and did not immediately respond to cease and desist requests.
In past encounters, if I let him in even a teeny, tiny, little bit, it’s VERY HARD to get away from him.
And by “letting him in” I mean, saying hi.
That qualifies.
The dance floor is spacious, at times with only 20–40 people on it, and I place myself where he is not.
I avoid sending any attention or energy in his direction — I do not want anything to be misconstrued as an invitation to engage. I absolutely do not look in his direction, ever.
The danger is that I will be hijacked and captured by his energy, his desire, his agenda.
I do not want that.
The night rolls on and it’s almost time to leave.
My friend and I grab a seat on the edge of the dance floor to decompress before making our way back to the car to depart.
This man is on a corner of the dance floor and now heads in our direction.
I absolutely do not want to engage and so play with energy in an experimental manner. It’s Boundaries Playtime folks.
I feel anchored, grounded and centred, and I focused on radiating ‘fuck off and don’t talk to me’ energy from my solar plexus.
The man stops right in front of me — I am not looking at him at all, and he moves forward and gets right up in my face.
“Do you know who I am?” he asks.
Possibly he’s rationalised my complete unavailability for engagement as indicative of me not recognising him.
