"I cleave the heavens, and soar to the infinite. What others see from afar, I leave far behind me." Giordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600)

Monday, September 1, 2014

The Circus is Coming to Town!

  
Logo courtesy of Roncalli 

"The attraction of the virtuoso for the public
 is very like that of the circus for the crowd. 
There is always the hope that something dangerous will happen."
Claude Debussy 
Julius Fucik - "Entry Of The Gladiators"
I haven't been to the circus since I was a kid. I am not sure whether my Dad took me that last time. I know I was with him the first time I saw a circus. Dad always arranged tickets through one of the clubs he where he was a member. That last time he may have organised a group of tickets for friends with kids. My baby sister and I may have gone with them Most of the Dads would go the club and wait it out until the show was finished. Each year he would arrange for us to go to these summer events, while the clubs still offered them.

This was when we lived in Australia. In those days, it was a thrill for kids to go to the circus, as it was a rarity in the cities and the country. A once a year chance, for something “exotic” besides the shows, regattas and rodeos, to found annually in the country towns and the big city. The circuses generally had exotic animals that shouldn’t have been performing in captivity, kept in always sad and sometimes bad conditions. Reflecting on it now, I can only imagine the stress and sadness these animals must have endured, to delight and make us human kids, as well as the human adults, smile, laugh or gawk in awe, at their performances.

Well the circus is coming to town, as in Vienna, Austria, (the country without Kangaroos). The circus in question is the Circus Roncalli. I have done a little research this circus since seeing the notices and it doesn't have exotic animal acts. They keep to domestic animals. Even so, I wonder how these animals are treated - the dogs, horses and ponies? After at least 4 decades and at 50 (cough splutter), I am seriously considering going to the circus to find out how the animals fare today. All I hope is that the care of the animals doesn't disappoint me if I do go.

A visit to the circus may be a good idea, considering recently I mentioned to my therapist that I had a yen to run off to join the circus one morning on the way to work. A sort of regressive thought back to the one that every small child has after they first visit to a circus, with all those delights they offer to the visitor. Maybe it is a sign that the circus is coming to town. All those cosmic cylinders clicking into place, telling me I should go to the circus.

My life, in the last months, has seemed to be gathering metaphors for change and awareness at a galloping pace. I see then in almost everything and just maybe this is another refreshing metaphor, pushing me to delight in the joys of old childhood experiences. Perhaps by reliving those seemingly joyful experiences without the unwarranted stresses thrown at me from a very early age, and all the decades that followed, could be a message that something magic may happen. They may even have a carousel. I share a love of carousels, with my sister, once having even penned a poem about them.

Maybe this could also  be something of a spiritual quest. The Universe sometimes seems to support the regeneration of your personal energy, which some people refer to as the soul, in the most unusual way. Considering that life can also be a circus at times, perhaps I need to see the real thing to get, my pixie perspective back in focus.

So the question is - do I or do I not go to the circus? Que Sera Sera!

Send in the clowns :) and what better way to finish off than have Dame Judi Dench, sing the song by the same name:
Dame Judi Dench sings "Send in the Clowns" - BBC Proms 2010
YouTube Channel - BBC 
*****
"Damn everything but the circus."
Corita Kent  

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