We were battened down in New Hampshire on Monday.  Tuesday was rainy and at times sunny with beautiful rainbows.  Tomorrow is back to the business of campaigning.

For many, though, there will not be a back to business for some time.  My heart goes out to the residents of the big cities of New Jersey, to my coastline friends in Massachusetts, and to all the places that have been flooded by Sandy. Last year it was my friends in Vermont who needed our prayers

It is heartening to see President Obama taking charge and Governor Christie of New Jersey being so generous and appreciative of his efforts.  This is how I would like it to be all the time, with no disaster required for civility.

Paula Josa-Jones in Ghostdance, photo Pam White

On October 30, it is 19 years since my father passed.  An impossible number.  I was living in Mexico, developing choreography with Mexican and American dancers called Ghostdance, based on the images and stories of the Dia de los Muertos.  My mother called and said that he was slipping into a coma, the result of organ failure due to his leukemia.  I flew home and arrived in time to feel the last voluntary movement he would ever make.  “I love you Daddy, I said,” and squeezed his hand.  He squeezed mine, and then fell deeper into a coma from which he would not emerge. I knew that he had been waiting for me.

It astonishes me that I still feel him to be so present.  That has never changed.  I can feel the great outlines of his humor, his warmth, his beauty.  I remember his hands, the way he walked, the little details of his physical presence.  All the other stuff that we fought over, all the battles that seemed so important – so very life and death – have dissolved, rinsed away, leaving the elemental part:  love, connection, appreciation.

I have noticed that the font that Mr. Romney is using for the signage for his Ohio campaign stops has a distinctly retro, nostalgic feel.  A subliminal pull toward the past – the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s.  The era of pin up girls, aprons, June Cleaver and big gas-sucking cars unhampered by pesky fuel economy regulation. An era that is pre-Stonewall, pre-Roe v. Wade, pre-the repeal of anti-micegenation laws.  You know, back to a time when white men ran the world.  No questions asked.  We women of a certain age remember it too well.

Running backwards is exhausting and ultimately a physical impossibility.  Looking over your shoulder is a good way to get a neck ache.  America is not a country that moves backwards in the direction of restricting or reducing civil liberties.  We leave that to countries like Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia.  We are a country that is founded on principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That includes choice about our bodies, our health and who we choose to love.

Forward.

This is another reason why I love this man.  His movement is elegant, easy, balanced, free-flowing.  His limbs spiral fluidly around the central axis of his body.  He is clearly comfortable in his own body, and at ease in the direction he is taking.  This is not really something that you can accomplish by exercise alone.  It is an expression of the mind and heart.  The body mirrors the mind and vice versa.

By contrast, I have been puzzled and disturbed by what I see in Mr. Romney’s movement.  In public appearances, his movement is stiff and un-yeilding, his gait often shuffling, his steps small and tentative. His chest and upper back retreat as he seems to wade, rather than walk forward.

One of the oddest movement moments followed the third presidential debate when he was leaning forward to shake hands with members of the audience,  He seemed unable to maintain his balance, and his wife placed her hands on either side of him like tongs to steady him.

Given that around 90% of our information exchange is non-verbal, these movement clues should be important.  Read the body to read the man.