Let's join the Circus!

Photo by Amy Baranski

posted by Melissa Baumgart
Have you ever wondered what it was like to be in the circus?  Have you wondred if, since the days of your youth when you went to the Barnum & Bailey Circus, if there even was a true circus out there anymore?  I know, there's Cirque de Soleil, but I am talking more real, nitty-gritty circus folk.

I discovered, through the sweet little video rental place up the street, that such a thing does exist.  We started watching a documentary about the circus, aptly titled, "Circus"!  It is made by PBS and it is quite good.  I highly recommend watching it.

So far we have watched 2 and a half of the six disc season.  You get to see the high profile performers, the ones that don't make the cut and get fired, the behind the scenes families and the ones that go to jail for a alleged bomb threat.  This show has it all, if you are into that reality TV kind of thing.  Or, I have to say, if you are into human nature and sometimes dream of running away to the circus.

I could be wrong, you know, Amy and I are kinda known for our "all or nothing" penchant for living.  But I am thinking we could totally do this.  If we keep up with yoga, go to this booty camp work out thing that we signed up for next week, and do some more aerial this month and beyond....we could be the aerialist,  We could be the circus.

Or it could be just another thing that we get all excited about, make up $70.00 worth of flyers for (can anybody say OCCUPY?), and then decide that it isn't our scene after all.  And that's OK.  Because I think it is perfectly fine to try many new possibilities for your life, and discover that it isn't your thing.  Rather than to not try anything new at all, just for the fear that maybe you might end up looking like you gave up on this new thing that seemed sooooo cool.

Doesn't almost everything that takes tons of practice and dedication seem amazing from the outside?  Pianists, gymnasts, Olympians, actors, aerialists, yoga instructors, accomplished artists of all kinds.  It is all within our reach if we also choose to dedicate ourselves.  Did you know that Julia Child was nearly 50 years old when she published her first French Cooking book?  Or that Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't publish her first book until the age of 65!

The world is still your oyster, no matter what your age, health status, weight, height, state of mind.  Grab it, make it what you want.  Or at least try something new...it just might inspire you to become the next Grandma Moses!  (She was Anna Mary Robertson Moses.  In her 70s she began painting scenes of her rural life in upstate New York, and become one of the most revered American folk artists of the 20th century.)

-Melissa