Circus & Life

Last weekend, my family and I watched the performance of the Super American Circus to celebrate our daughter’s fifth birthday. I suddenly realized that the last circus performance I watched was about 30 years ago, in the same city. It was one of my unforgettable childhood moments as I marveled about the clowns’ and acrobats’ incredible performance.

However, there is a difference between my previous experience as a child and now that I’m an adult. It seems that my level of response and feeling of awe has diminished; it may be because I had already witnessed these things before and majority of my attention is directed towards my daughter’s reaction instead. Indeed, she was amazed with the magical illusions and the death-defying stunts. However, since she refused to take her afternoon nap, her energy and focus have dwindled, and slept on her mom’s lap.

The program continued with the silly clown riding on the so-called smallest bike in the world and was followed by a couple showing their juggling skills. These tricks may be one of the more common scenes to be shown in the circus but there are two main reasons which made me appreciate these specific acts. These are:

First, the juggling act took me back to one of our reading topics in English entitled “Our Lady’s Juggler” by Anatole France, which is about a poor and illiterate traveling juggler named Barnabas who grew weary from his monotonous lifestyle. Every day, Barnabas expresses his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the only way he knows—by juggling in front of her statue in the monastery. One day, he faints from exhaustion, and suddenly, the Statue of Virgin Mary comes to life. She descended from her place, wiped Barnabas’ face, and cradled him in her arms.

Second, as I reflected on my professional and personal life, riding a bicycle can be used as a metaphor in nurturing relationships with everybody. Marriage and parenting are areas in our personal lives wherein the daily pedaling of our bikes of responsibility is crucial to make the relationship work out. On the other hand, in a corporate setting, I realized that measurable assets are not enough. An organization may be profitable but poor in social capital. Hence, management shall engage everybody in the daily pedaling of bikes of trust and innovation to sustain the organizational balance.

In the grand scheme of things, what exactly is the circus saying?

On being a child. Each of us has an inner child which we must allow to flourish by appreciating God’s mysterious ways. Despite our knowledge about Christ, we still do not know Him fully. Our childish ways push us to create an image of Him that suits our needs and biases, but beyond our mental faculties and physical abilities, He keeps on surprising us with His magnificence and right timing.

On being in awe. Being in awe justifies the child within us. When Jesus healed the paralytic (Matt 9:1-8), the people were amazed at what Christ did. This underscores our lowliness, vulnerability, and smallness in the things and events that are being revealed in this bigger reality called life. In His love, we may be small in this vast universe, but not insignificant. (Francis Manayan)