Circus Circus

You either love the circus or you hate it. Countless Americans suffer from coulrophobia – a fear of clowns. I am not one of those Americans.

The company that employs me and helps me maintain my lavish lifestyle is very involved in the local community. It seems that there is always some upcoming service activity requesting volunteers. An out-of-the-ordinary opportunity presented itself this week and I immediately signed up.

The Big Apple Circus is a non-profit circus. When they come to Boston they always have a “Circus of the Senses”, which is a specially-tailored show to kids who are blind, deaf, or have learning disabilities. We volunteer to greet the groups of kids who come in, show them to their seats, and help them get audio headsets, etc.

Confession time: my motive for going to the circus was completely selfish. I think service is important and I try to do it, but this time I just really wanted to see the circus!

The trapeze lady was phenomenal. The juggling twins had an incredibly-choreographed routine. The tightrope lady did the splits on the tightrope. The ballet dancer was on point on top of somebody’s head. Wow. 

I loved it. I can now check that off my life list. Except next to the check, there would have to be an asterisk (a la Barry Bonds) with the note: “There were no lions or elephants in this circus.” Someday.