Play All the Sports

Why is it that professional athletes make millions of dollars playing sports, while professional artists might as well live out of cardboard boxes under a bridge while waiting for paint to dry? Is it lack of talent or intrigue offered for the attending audience? Both professions require a lifetime of sacrifice and hard work through verbal abuse and physical demands, yet one fills theaters while the other fills stadiums, unless you're Sting, who is currently the wealthiest musician. In regard to sports, I understand the competitive nature and excitement around the uncertainty for each event, while performance art tends to simply tell stories that are more or less predictable. Over the last 30 years or so, some dance studios have taken on more lucrative, competitive pathways over traditional conservatories in pursuit of leveling the playing field.

As a kid, my parents were not regular watchers of professional sports. While we attended a few live baseball games, it wasn’t regularly on tv, just like we never watched football or basketball on tv either. If anything, my dad preferred eating his pork rinds with beer while watching America’s Cup Sailing competitions, or professional bowling. Growing up in a household that cherished art over sports seems like an anomaly, but ironically my husband also doesn’t care for popular team sports either and would opt for extreme sports like skateboarding or dirt bike racing. With that said, I’m always amazed by the outpouring of fans who attend professional sporting events as spectators, while many live theatre shows struggle to make ends meet.

From grades 5-8 I attended a very small Catholic school in New Smyrna Beach, FL with only 20ish students per grade. For the school to compete in sports, the whole class was encouraged to join to have enough players on each team. During my middle school years, in addition to dancing ballet, I joined basketball, volleyball, soccer, track, and cheerleading. I realize that this was a rare circumstance, and normally kids in public schools have to rely on making the team before being allowed to play, and only a small percentage are able to do so. However, I will always feel grateful for the opportunity to have learned to appreciate team sports through several years of participation, although I still have difficulty attending as a spectator.

Similarly with dancing, I feel grateful to have also performed modern, jazz, and hip hop in addition to ballet. What is the most motivating factor to encourage students to feel exceptional in everything they decide to pursue? While some kids have natural talents that will allow ease in learning new activities, others require more time and encouragement to reach their potential. The biggest disservice we might do as teachers is undermine the time it takes students to discover their talents, especially for those who take more time than others. Motivation over negative reinforcement, watchful interest, and consistency allows students to overcome fears and make new discoveries, even if practice doesn’t lead to lifelong obsession.

Today, while discovering world records to conquer, my son Will (age 12) is learning how to juggle everything in sight. His interests are all over the map, from magic and yo-yos, to football and swimming, to drawing and movie-making. Some activities have come and gone, and some magically reappear when we least expect. Will he ever parkour like Spiderman through his efforts in CrossFit and warrior tumbling classes? Or will he end up using his illustrations to portray his wild imagination? More importantly, is it necessary for us to choose one profession in life, or can we limitlessly try everything? Playing all the sports, testing new pursuits, and staying open to new opportunities to expand our horizons may be the only way to discover our own truest potential.

The Birthday Fairy

I have a fascination with circus and performance art. Like dance, performance art gives artists an opportunity to momentarily step out of their normal shoes and transform into an alternative self. While joining a circus might feel dramatic, for a regular performer it’s just another day in costume. Simply wrap an enormous box filled with helium balloons, bring cupcakes and imaginary candles and sing with everyone around. This is how the Birthday Fairy was born.

Jesters date back thousands of years to Egyptian and Norse times using their talents to distract from everyday mediocrity, or bring happiness during wartimes. Portraying metaphors of life through performance art were a method of creating exaggerated impersonations of the human experience. Willard Scott might be the most famous clown, who started as Bozo and Ronald McDonald, later delivering weather reports using alternative personalities. It wasn’t until the 1980s when Steven King’s “It” created a terrifying version of the jolly messengers when people became more fearful of a once joyful personification.

Birthdays are the most common time to see clowns magically appear with tricks or face painting. As far as birthday parties go, I’m always a little surprised to see that even post-covid, we’re still blowing out candles on the cake, spreading all the spit and hot breath over buttercream before sharing a slice with friends and family. Like clowns, the history of candles also dates back to the Egyptian pharaohs who would use candles to represent the light of how many moons have passed.

This is the beauty of birthdays, to have the blessing of life year after year with an annual reminder that we must be doing something right, every wrinkle and grey hair indicating how lucky we are to remain on earth with the people we love. In addition to feeling magnificently grateful on my own birthday, celebrating others on theirs might be one of my favorite hobbies.

The introduction of Care Bears during childhood, appearing for the first time in 1982 (also my birth year) was another special time when birthdays moved to the forefront of celebratory events. Amongst the 10 original Care Bears was the best bear of all time, Birthday Bear. While my brother, Jeff felt partial to Grumpy Bear, I preferred the bear who was always ready to party with his tagline, “He’s an instant celebration, just add you.”

As a performer, I’ve been tasked to transform into all sorts of fanciful characters in ballets and other narrative shows. Since having kids, the most common costumes I wear now are in the form of a child-eating witch on Halloween, who feeds toasted crickets to trick-or-treaters and speaks in my grandmother’s proper tone, affectionately named Madame Genevieve. Additional characters include the Easter Bunny who pantomimes excitement under a giant fluffy head, Alice in Wonderland who less-than-eloquently paints trusting faces with mediocre illustrations, and the illustrious Birthday Fairy.

The Birthday Fairy has appeared about a dozen times over the years, becoming more wild and elaborate with each event. Starting in 2013, the first to be celebrated was a kindergarten teacher on her 1/2 birthday. The fairy strutted into my daughter’s classroom to find one of the most enchanting human beings ecstatic to be sprinkled with love.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much of an ass we make of ourselves if it brings joy to people we care about. I try to remind my kids (and myself) daily that anything less than 5 embarrassing moments per day indicates that we need to leave the house more often. Letting go of our most insecure characteristics allows performers, like the Birthday Fairy to go out and spread love as often as possible, no matter the amount of effort and ridiculousness.

My Tomorrow Self

When I was in middle school, one of my favorite teachers would regularly pray to Saint Anthony. Whenever she would misplace her keys or other objects we would hear her say, “Saint Anthony please help me find my keys.” While patron saints are used as a vehicle for prayer, Saint Anthony in particular is the seeker of lost articles, and likewise I have also made a habit of using prayer when items go missing. Overtime, I’ve noticed how giving ourselves over to prayer can also help distract our hurried hearts in order to thoughtfully remember where objects were left. Either way, if it’s Saint Anthony’s divine spirit helping me calm or leading me to discover the location of hidden items, I feel grateful to have a friend in the effort.

The idea of “my tomorrow self” was first introduced to me when considering how we might end the day, never out of malice but out of love and gratitude. Going to sleep upset is never convenient on nights when we are expected to be useful the next day. Awareness of tomorrow helps in the journey of preparation. In a more morbid connection, we might also clean the house with extra elbow grease when going out of town in case the worst occurs and we don’t make it back safely, leaving family and friends the task to organize belongings like on CSI. Yes, I realize the image is gruesome, but just so you know mom, my house is ready for you just in case.

Procrastination is the act of delay caused by fear, anxiety, and an unconscious need for more time. Accomplishing tasks before I’m able to consider alternative missions encourages me to stay ahead of the mind game. Setting out clothes, making the bed, preparing meals, and saving calories for later are all simple favors for “my tomorrow self.”

By definition, a virtue is a positive habit established with thoughtful repetition. Like the same middle school teacher once introduced in theological debate class, the three virtues most prevalent for Catholics include faith, hope, and charity. In more contemporary Christian practices, charity has also been relayed as love. In keeping the most necessary virtues at the forefront of my thoughts, tasks feels more manageable.

Considering “my tomorrow self” and how I want that person to look to the outside world helps encourage this pursuit as well. Do I want to wake up feeling tired, haggard, and disorganized with a smelly house and destructive kids? In teaching our kids respectful and helpful habits, they too can understanding the purpose of my expectations by reciprocating the same actions in return.

Yes, it’s also essential to appreciate today (Susan), but taking a few moments to prepare for tomorrow might help calm the spirit so we can confidently wake up feeling optimistic.