Circus Day

credit: Salomon888

Juggling is not a prerequisite for a career in conservation, but one particular summer at the A Rocha environmental centre you might have thought it was. Strangely, out of 18 staff and interns, over half of us could juggle. I can’t recall how this fascinating bit of trivia revealed itself (Were we tossing rutabagas when we should have been raking?) but it inspired an end-of-summer Circus Day. Everyone who could juggle brought tennis balls, bean bags and spherical fruit. One guy brought his “diablo sticks” and a clever yo-yo thing that could be launched 30 ft. in the air. Another fellow set up a tension line in the orchard so we could try our legs at walking a tightrope.

During the frivolity I chatted with two guests staying at the centre – a couple who both held PhDs and who were both highly successful in their fields. Watching the skill with which our bunch swirled balls through the air, the husband's eyebrows arched as he commented on how good we were at wasting time – we must be if we could become so accomplished at activities so meaningless.

His comment lodged in the craw of my brain and has needled me over the years. With the wisdom of hindsight here is the reply I would now give. Could it be that being drawn to the work of conservation, which involves the studying, preserving and relishing of the “physical”, we A Rocha-ites are likewise drawn to our own physicality? Juggling, for us, just might be a way of being physically embodied. It takes hand-eye coordination, concentration, measured breathing, peripheral vision and an awareness of space. It requires an attention to the present moment. That’s the philosophical justification; probably we juggle because it's fun.

Yes, the world may be going to hell in a hand basket, but there’s still so much goodness to be enjoyed right now, right in our bodies. So why not juggle? Why not waste a bit of time doing something that won't compute?* Why not spend some time in our bodies, joyful as saints?


*(From Wendell Berry's Poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer's Liberation Front:  "..everyday do something that won't compute.."