Not because I'm fantastically hilarious or anything. I just think I'd be good at making a total fool of myself on stage in front of thousands of people ... if I was covered in makeup and seven layers of strange patterned polyester.
I enjoy being on stage. I can be a tad overbearing at times. And I fall down. I'm clumsy. What other requirements are there really?
I realize that I just never had the chance to try my hand at being a clown. The opportunity was never there for me.
Yesterday our family went to the Circus Festival at the Harbourfront. It was pretty fantastic.
The highlight was the afternoon show on the main stage. It was a showcase of all kinds of various circus acts ... all kinds of acrobatics, balancing acts, a dancing couple who were also quite bendy, a guy who danced around with a broom (which sounds lame but it was really quite fascinating), and some clowns of course.
And the highlight of the afternoon for my husband? Jen Georgeopoulos - acrobatics in a hula hoop high above main stage in a spandex outfit - need I say more?
(Actually, when we arrived at the stage and saw a hula hoop dangling from the ceiling of the stage I think Curtis was secretly excited that Pink would be making a surprise appearance that afternoon to preform her Grammy Act again. Not sure what I'm talking about? I truly am sorry. Especially if you're male. Look it up.)
Anyway ... the circus show was great and I loved it and the boys loved it.
And I now believe I would have made a great clown.
This got me thinking about my own boys ...
Jackie Chan was enthralled with the hip hop dancing and all the acrobatics. I started to wonder what he will choose do when he gets older. What will he take to? What "thing" will be his passion?
It's a big decision as a parent to decide what activities you should place your kids in. Piano? Singing lessons? Drama? Dance? Robot building? Martial Arts? Swimming? Skating? Hockey? Soccer? Baseball?
You see my dilemma ...
Jackie Chan is at that age where we want to put him in things to get him involved and find a passion and grow ... but it's a really hard decision.
If we put him in gymnastics, will he love it enough to pursue it and become part of Cirque du Soleil? If we put him in dance and drama, will he make it to Broadway? If we put him in a sport, will he make it to the professional level?
Does any of that matter? It shouldn't ... but shouldn't your passions inspire your dreams?
What if we put him in skating lessons when what he's really good at is dancing? And what if we never know because he never had the chance?
Or send him off to Karate when what he should be doing is acting?
And what if all the things we want to put him in are really our own personal dreams, long abandoned, now being forced on our children so we can live vicariously?
Sure, we can ask him what he'd like to do ... but Jackie Chan changes his mind more often than his underwear.
But does his whole future depend on what activities we decide to put him in now?
And, if he spends most of his childhood and youth passionately exploring a certain "thing" (music, dance, sports, art, whatever ...) and then decides later in life that he wants to walk away from that ... was it all a waste of time? A waste of precious time?
(You see how my mind can take a perfectly wonderful day with the family and turn it in to some kind of major drama ...)
Being a parent is complicated. Right down to extra curricular activity choices.
And to think ... a slightly different decision on my parents part and I might have been part of a travelling circus.
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