Dancing in the Dark
You were there in a big hall, across a crowded dance floor. We all wanted to dance with you, and you in turn wanted to dance with each of us. You intrigued me because we shared a dance partner -- only I was trying my hardest to disavow that I'd ever danced with this creature. You, however, smiled at my unwanted partner like you were old friends. It rattled me, I must admit.
The dance went on. You changed up the music and intrigued me even more. You laughed with my pursuer. I kept avoiding this creature of whom I wanted no part. I'd had more than my fill of this beast and I wanted to forget it ever existed. Yet again, you smiled at it and I couldn't understand. How could you befriend such a monster? I took a break from the dancing and pondered this. How could it be? How could such a wonderful person as you smile at the thing that tried to kill me? Unless -- had it tried its work on you as well, and had you figured out how to appease it?
It had waited my evasion long enough. The creature came over and demanded to dance with me. It was my turn and I did not have a choice. It held me close. You came to us out on the floor and said, with that beautiful grin, "Hey, mind if I join?" You weren't cutting in to take me away, but joining in -- a pas de trois, if you will.
And I laughed. You laughed. The creature laughed, hollowly. And we danced together.
It was a tenuous dance, to be sure, but I began to understand. The creature had danced with you for a long time, and you had learned its motions that I had not yet mastered. The music kept going, the beautiful lyrics and music that finally settled in and you helped me learn to master the steps, the turns, the dips and laugh through it all.
We danced together for quite a while. I thought it would last forever, or at least longer than it did. You sang to me, and to everyone gathered there, and you reached into our souls and said, "Me too."
Then you smiled once more -- and left the dance floor. You just walked away and didn't look back. I looked everywhere for you and learned you'd exited the venue. I looked with sad eyes at the creature and saw its fangs gleaming. I realized it still dances with me and always will. And the music sounds different. I still see your face, I still hear the laughter, I still hear you teaching me how to dance.
I miss you, my dance partner. I take the steps with the creature, but now I find myself surrounded by the other beautiful souls to whom you sang and danced, who also shared the pas de trois. And they too have all uttered the two most beautiful words in any language: me too.
Goodbye Chris Cornell, my dance partner who taught me how to dance with my demons. I will take your lessons and continue to live them. It is my honor to carry on the work of teaching others how to dance too, even with darkness surrounding them and pursuing them. I will continue to reach for the light, as we all hold each other's hands in the darkness. We will remember, and we will dance with you still.