Steve and I are going with my Dad this evening to see Corteo, the latest production of Cirque de Soleil. This will be the fourth production that I will have seen and every time I go, I feel like I’m swept up into some magical dream world that I can’t quite pull myself out of. It’s the most exquisite of escapes!
When I watch things like Cirque de Soleil, I can’t help but recognize how big the world really is and how much potential it has. I often get very caught up in the details of my own small little world that sometimes, it feels inescapable. Not that I want to escape from it, but I don’t often consider the possibility of any other life. And yet, here is someone else’s day to day to life…being in the circus! They travel around the world, swinging from chandeliers and all the while, our lives have crossed paths. It never fails to amaze me.
When Steve and I were in Hawaii, we spent a day driving to the top of Haleakala Crater; the active volcano on the island of Maui. Just before reaching the summit, we came across the planetariums along the side of the volcano, some of which are the best observatories in the world. It occurred to me at that moment that, this too, was someone’s life. They lived on this beautiful island and drove up this volcano to their office, as astronomers gazing out into the night sky. Isn’t it amazing when you think about the endless possibilities that are out there for each of us? Someone has to swing from a chandelier in the circus…why not us? Someone has to name the stars…why not us? How different would our lives be if we forced ourselves to remember how much bigger the world really is?
On the other hand, I wonder if those that live those lives ever wonder the same thing about us? I wonder if that astronomer ever looks at us driving up the volcano in our newly wedded bliss and says “hmmm…how exotic…a Canadian snow bunny discovering the rainforest on her honeymoon”. Or if that acrobat ever feels claustrophobic spending their life isolated to the Big Top? Okay, probably not…but you get the idea!
I’d like to think that our lives, whether it is an office job or taming lions, are only as adventurous or confining as we make them. I’d also like to think that our world is only as big or small as we allow it to be. It’s true…we can’t all be astronauts or Indiana Jones, but we can all borrow bits and pieces of each other’s lives in order to spice up our own. I mean really, who hasn’t dreamt about running away with the circus?!?!
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