Last Thursday Ulysses threatened and unraveled my Tango world by presenting me with the choice of a red pill or blue pill.  For those of you that do not recognize the reference, it is from the Movie, Matrix.

The Matrix’s plot brief explanation from Wikipedia: Computer programmer Thomas A. Anderson leads a secret life as a hacker under the alias ”Neo”, and wishes to learn the answer to the question, “What is the Matrix?” Cryptic messages appearing on his computer monitor and encounters with three sinister agents lead him to a group led by the mysterious Morpheus, a man who offers him the chance to learn the truth about the Matrix.

Neo accepts by swallowing an offered red pill, and subsequently finds himself naked in a liquid-filled pod, his body connected by wires to a vast mechanical tower covered with identical pods.  The film describes a future in which reality perceived by humans is actually the Matrix: a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source (for the machines.)

Ulysses is a man I met in a Buenos Aires milonga 2 1/2 years ago.  We talked enough where we both felt a connection worthy of staying in touch.  On Thursday, I skyped Ulysses explaining my frustrations and confusion over various behaviors at Stone Soup.  Ulysses asked me to go into more detail about my experiences at Stone Soup and other Tango festivals.

I could offer all of you the details of a long rant, but it is quite negative, ugly and full of anger, sadness, and depression.  I can sum up my rant with the following:  I have known for some time that I have sensed that something beyond my conscious awareness is at work, and if known, could explain ALL of the behaviors behind my rant.  I believe my frustrations, shortcomings, insecurities and lack of full alignment and joy with Argentine Tango are of my making.  However, I have been unconscious of what I have been doing to create these consistent experiences I would term – non-aligned with my Soul/ Psyche.

After Ulysses patiently listened to my long rant of 3 1/2 years of frustrations with Tango, he responded with, “Dave, hold on.”  After more than a couple of minutes, and more frustration on my part, he came back to the screen with two pills – one red, one blue.  OK, they were not the same pills as I saw in the Matrix, being obvious pharmaceutical over-the-counter drugs, but I got the chilling reference.  In disbelief I shared with him how I have sensed some hidden stream of information that could fully account for what I have witnessed, experienced and heard in Tango, AND several experiences in my personal life, which is mirrored in Tango and its milongas and festivals.

He looked me in the eyes – which means with Skype, you need to look up into the camera, not at the computer screen.  So he seemed serious when he said something to the gist of- we have talked only a few times in the last 2 1/2 years, but I know enough about you to be able to offer you a choice – red pill or blue pill.  I smirked, and said, great, tell me the red pill stuff!

He responded to my smirk, “wait – you don’t think I’m serious?”  I retorted, “Of course not Ulysses, but if you have some great info that would explain what I have been experiencing and/ or creating, bring it on!”  He countered with, “I want you to think carefully about the possibility that a Tango Matrix exists.  Knowing the truth of what really goes on in your world of Tango will change your Tango world and life.”

At this point thoughts ran through my head shouting: “You heard this before from more than a few supposed Gurus and spiritual teachers”; “Is this guy serious at all?”; “B.S.”; “I had a friend who got all mystical and mysterious on me and bugged the shit out of me with his B.S.”.

However, Ulysses put forth the following – What if in taking the red pill you could find out:

• What is behind mens’ and womens’ choices of who they dance with
• Why there are cliques
• Why you and so many people are drawn to Tango
• Why many will never get much better in Tango
• How you could get really good
• What men and woman really want
• What most people believe about Tango that is false, but do not realize is true of Tango
• You can’t share the Tango Matrix because you will piss a lot of people off, and they will not like you, not dance with you, nor hire you
• What you are personally lacking in social skills
• You will have to face ugly truths about yourself
• More than half of the magic, joy and pleasure of Tango will disappear, possibly for good
• And the worst possible thing- you may become so turned off to Tango, that you give it up and find that you’ve wasted a lot of time and money

And then he added, “I can’t even tell you many of the things that taking the red pill will show you, but think about what I have said.”  He said he had to get back to work.

Great – is this guy for real?  And then I launched into thinking WHAT IF?