On Saturday, we went to celebrate with some friends and their family the bar mitzvah of their youngest son. It was a joyous occasion, and included something I'd never seen before.
The parents had hired a DJ to play music while we ate and then try to get the kids (and adults) onto the dance floor. He played all the usual songs you hear at events like this, but added something different -- two women he called his "Motivators." They were there to encourage people, keep the crowd dancing, smile a lot, and show them some moves.
They both seemed to be in their mid-twenties, in very good shape, and constantly in motion. Some of the young girls, like my daughter, followed their steps and had a fun time learning some moves.
The boys, on the other hand, couldn't take their eyes off The Motivators. It's not that these women were scantily dressed at all -- they weren't. It's just that these are boys right at the age of puberty, just beginning to notice the female form. If the goal was to get them on the dance floor, mission accomplished, but dancing wasn't uppermost on the boys' minds.
It turned out that the parents hadn't even asked the DJ to include The Motivators, but he had thrown them in at no charge because he's known the extended family for a long time. I mentioned to the father of the bar mitzvah boy that this was a pretty nice present for a 13-year-old boy. With a smile, he agreed.
Motivation, you see, comes in many forms.