Frigthening Reminder

My very first circus history class, our teacher asked us what we thought of when we thought of the circus. There was a chorus of "Trapeze!", "Clowns!", and "The chapiteau!". Our teacher looked at us and said one word: death.

I woke up this morning to news that a member of my immediate circus community had an accident on stage. I'm still unclear on the details, but it would seem that the acrobat in question fell on his neck while performing an acrobatic figure of some kind. He's broken some vertebrae in his neck. We're waiting to see what will come next.

A few of my friends have had serious accidents on stage, and this isn't even the first time someone I know has broken their neck. And you would think that having your friend in a coma for months would wake you up to just how dangerous your career choice really is. But the truth is, you quickly fall back into the habit of taking it for granted that you're good at what you do, you're well trained, and that things like that happen to other people, not you.

I suspect a lot of that is a defense mechanism. How could you possibly go on stage night after night if all you could think about is how it could very possibly be the last thing you do? I know there are moments where I see myself falling off the stage, crushing audience members and doing all kinds of damage to myself. But if I didn't push those thoughts aside and focus on what I need to do, it would paralyze me.

But the reality is that this job is dangerous and accidents do happen. Every time we step on stage we take a risk. All it takes is a momentary slip in concentration, a miscalculation, having an "off day", or worst of all, someone else's bad call. Sometimes, you don't even know the why and the how of it.

It's a terrible thing when you have to be reminded of that in such a way as this.

Our thoughts and positive energy are with him, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

For those of us who have to step into the ring, be safe.