On pleasure and pain (Istanbul)
"Punishment causes organisms to close themselves in, freezing and withdrawing themselves from the environment. Reward causes organisms to open themselves up and out towards their surroundings, approaching it, searching it, and by doing so increasing both their opportunity of survival and their vulnerability." This quotation, from an inspiring and challenging book I brought along on this trip to Istanbul (The Feeling of What Happens; Body, emotion and consciousness. by Antonio Damasio ), seems to me a perfect metaphor for what tango is and means to me. I am here for yet another festival, The Istanbul Tango Ritual, and have spent the past four days shamelessly indulging myself in the pleasures of tango travel. As this time there are no daytime milongas while the evening ones carry on until 5 am, I have let myself be seduced into an inversed daily cycle of going to bed at 5.30 am and sleeping well into the afternoon, even early evening. Besides dancing my feet off, I ...