Polka dots and Moonbeams

A wonderful old song that has been covered by Sinatra, Denver, Vaughn, and probably dozens other artists over the years since it was introduced:

“A country dance was being held in a garden

I felt a bump and heard an 'oh, beg your pardon,'

suddenly I saw polka dots and moonbeams

all around a pug-nosed dream”

The interesting thing about this song is the total lack of gender identification of either the persona “I” who felt the bump or the “pug-nosed dream” being bumped. And it never computed until yesterday when I heard a woman jazz vocalist sing a really good jazzy version and it was pretty obvious by her intonations that she was singing about a woman. Then I got to thinking about all the other times I have heard this song, mostly by men, and wondered if they could have been singing about a man? Why hadn’t this occurred to me before? The lyrics certainly open the door: Why wouldn’t there be “questions in the eyes of other dancers” if a same-sex couple was in there midst?

“There were questions in the eyes of other dancers

as we floated over the floor

there were questions, but my heart knew all the answers

and perhaps a few things more”

The answer I think is not that the song or delivery has changed, but my “life filter” has changed. I always viewed the world as a heterosexual and made all the assumptions that fit that view. For many years my view has been drifting toward a more inclusive and less dogmatic one.
And once I shed the filters of prejudice (1) (malignant or not that’s what we all have) and simply allow the realities of life to express themselves without filters, the whole world suddenly shifts and lots of new possibilities open. What I wonder and worry about is the sudden understanding of something that has been staring me in the brain for decades. Maybe we are never too old to learn, huh?

http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/cassandra_wilson/polka_dots_and_moonbeams-lyrics-1229273.html
1. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/findword?query_type=word&queryword=prejudice
Image: http://keltic.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/1st-dance.jpg