The Show Can Go On
During these difficult days of pandemic, when we wonder how long it will take for normalcy to return, it’s a good time to focus on our nation’s inherent resilience. History teaches us that this, too, will pass. America has been knocked down more times than Lebron James has scored three-pointers, but we’ve never stayed down.
I remember covering the story of a skydiver whose parachute had only partially opened, and she hit the ground, hard. But at the hospital doctors discovered her injuries were amazingly slight.
“It’s because I’ve been trained how to fall,” she told me during our interview.
Learning how the fall can mean the difference between life and death. We were watching the world renowned acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil as they performed in Las Vegas.
The audience was fascinated to the point of awe by highly skilled performers flying from one swinging trapeze to another, twisting in midair, then grabbing the wrists of a partner swooping at them from another direction.
Suddenly one of the acrobats missed. There were gasps from the crowd as she plunged toward the net 50 to 60 feet below. But with the grace and precision of a ballet dancer, the falling performer turned her body so that she landed on the net in full control. She hit the net in sort of a half prone position.
Despite slamming into the net at considerable speed, she bounced back upright onto both feet, hopped over to the rope ladder and climb back up to the trapeze. Her skill in checking that fall was every bit as impressive as her ability on the swings.
None of us gets through life without taking some falls.
We tumble off the career ladder.
We stumble in our marriages.
We get knocked flat by unexpected illness or accident.
We are tripped up by Financial reverses.
We may be dazed. We may even be hurt.
But if we’ve learned how to fall, we can get up again.
Our show can go on!