Tenzin Tsomo, Grade 11
UWC Red Cross Nordic
Time is subjective. Its speed and length feels different for each person but one thing is universal for all, the direction of time. No matter how fast we go or how much we shorten it, the flow of time still remains the same. It is an entity that waits for no one. We experience it all our life, passing through our skin, our surroundings, and our life. It’s either run with it or lose it. But just, in this case, it is different, let’s say we have control over time itself. A little authority lent by the titan of time, Kronos. In the form of a time machine. My button would set the year to 1518.
So now we are in a small village called the Strasbourg of the holy Romanian empire. Everything is calm and as usual, with little food shortages and diseases flying around, but all around it is quite peaceful. But now, we see a lady dancing in the middle of the streets in the light of the day, and it seems fairly unusual as there is no music to dance to and nor did the lady’s face expressed to be enjoying herself. Her limbs are flailing about, and blood seems to be seeping through her soles. This entire affair confused the onlookers and also the scientists who would still ponder upon the case years in the future.
What we just saw was the initial spotting of the dancing plague; the lady was just the start. After her, about three hundred villagers caught the same symptoms. All dancing their feet off and literally breaking their legs to keep on dancing. Their tiredness and unwillingness did little to stop them from dancing; it controlled their entire body like strung from a puppet string. They kept on dancing for weeks. Some injured themselves permanently, some became traumatized, and some died in this whole ordeal. It was a puzzling enigma that begged to be solved.
It was declared in that time period that these occurring were due to hot blood, a need to flush the fever away. But it still remains unclear what caused this hysteria. So I want to travel back in time to 1518 Strasbourg and visit the marketplace where it happened. I want to see how one human can lose complete control over their body, how there can be two separate selves for one body, one loss, and one urge to dance. The extent of the power of the brain and the mind. Witnessing this dancing plague might just answer our deepest curiosities about the capabilities of the human brain.
So now we are in a small village called the Strasbourg of the holy Romanian empire. Everything is calm and as usual, with little food shortages and diseases flying around, but all around it is quite peaceful. But now, we see a lady dancing in the middle of the streets in the light of the day, and it seems fairly unusual as there is no music to dance to and nor did the lady’s face expressed to be enjoying herself. Her limbs are flailing about, and blood seems to be seeping through her soles. This entire affair confused the onlookers and also the scientists who would still ponder upon the case years in the future.
What we just saw was the initial spotting of the dancing plague; the lady was just the start. After her, about three hundred villagers caught the same symptoms. All dancing their feet off and literally breaking their legs to keep on dancing. Their tiredness and unwillingness did little to stop them from dancing; it controlled their entire body like strung from a puppet string. They kept on dancing for weeks. Some injured themselves permanently, some became traumatized, and some died in this whole ordeal. It was a puzzling enigma that begged to be solved.
It was declared in that time period that these occurring were due to hot blood, a need to flush the fever away. But it still remains unclear what caused this hysteria. So I want to travel back in time to 1518 Strasbourg and visit the marketplace where it happened. I want to see how one human can lose complete control over their body, how there can be two separate selves for one body, one loss, and one urge to dance. The extent of the power of the brain and the mind. Witnessing this dancing plague might just answer our deepest curiosities about the capabilities of the human brain.
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