I found myself doing something unusual today.

I was walking down the street to the post office to mail my rent and health-insurance checks. Nothing unusual about that. But there was something about the way it felt...

It took me a second to figure it out: my hips were moving.

I'm an uptight white boy, raised in a homophobic culture. Sure, there was disco when I was little, but I was never really the dancing type. I learned to walk with a manly stride in which the pelvis remains as still as possible; only the thighs and shins were supposed to move.

When I came out, I managed to undo some of that conditioning. I even got a little funky on the dance floor. But my default behavior is the Guy Walk.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to me, to find myself bouncing down the sidewalk like a young John Travolta with Saturday Night Fever. All I can figure is that... I was happy. Not completely care free, but relaxed enough and cheerful enough to loosen up the hips and let them move. Which was fun. I guess life is pretty good when a man can spontaneously sashay down the street.