Two to tango - but who keeps moving the loo roll?

That is one hell of a thigh on that woman in this, our last card of the week from Delphine Sutherland's Oracle of Proverbs (2013), 'It takes two to tango.'

I've always heard this phrase used to remind someone that whenever there's an argument, it's not just the fault of one person. Someone has to argue back. If there is discord, if there is trouble -- it takes two to tango.

The tango itself is a dance of extreme tension. There is attraction to the point of violence, a very serious dance. You never, ever see a smile in a tango. There is tension without release in a tango, and this could be compared to two people who just can't get along, but for some perverse reason, they keep stringing out the conflict. In this way, it takes two to tango. If one or the other stepped back, out of the spell, and said, 'Wait, this is stupid. Don't we look silly though. all this kicking and pulling faces!' -- then the whole nebulous thing would fall apart. In this sense, the phrase means, if you don't participate in this, the conflict (or tension, or whatever it is) will just disappear. (Admittedly the frisson of day to day conflict is not as fun as foreplay, which is what the tango patently represents. BUT, tension is tension I guess.)




Delphine's LWB suggests another meaning for the phrase: 'Relationships matter. Real love comes when we begin to accept one another totally.' So, in this interpretation, 'It takes two to tango' means we have to work with each other to perform the complex and intricate machinations of a successful relationship, just like the dancers must be in sync to avoid kicking the bejeebers of our each other's shins. (And sometimes marriage is a little bit like shin kicking contest! ha ha)

But I do have to admit, I see the actual tango as being more about the earliest throes of sexual tension, and less about showing patience the 112th time you've walked in the bathroom to find the toilet roll is turned round the wrong way again. No matter who starts the argument about it, you don't have to holler back, though -- 'cause it takes two to tango!

So, my lovelies? What kind of tango have you been dancing lately? Do you want to carry on?