There's No Safety on a Tightrope

If you've ever seen a tightrope walker perform, then you know that it might be one of the most stressful things the human eye can watch. If you haven't, just imagine watching your favorite sports team play the final seconds of a game in which they have the ball down by one and have to score to win the game- and then multiply that stress level by about 20. That's what it feels like watching a tightrope walker perform. 

Yesterday, I was working an event at work (Cirque du Soleil), and there just so happened to be a tightrope walker in the act. But he wasn't just any tightrope walker; He was THE tightrope walker- the one and only one in the performance. And he was good. Really good. He was so good in fact that not only did he walk on the tightrope, but he also did: headstands, flips, jumps, balanced contortion and, last but not least, unicycling- all on the tightrope.

Watching this portion of the performance brought me out of my 25-year-old self. I felt like one of the kids in the audience as I watched. I ooh'd and ahh'd. I cringed and gasped. I even found myself subconsciously moving in my seat trying to will the performer into balance with my own movements. Needless to say, he didn't need my help. 

Watching tightrope walkers perform is stressful for a the obvious reason of not wanting them to fall to serious injury or their death (depending on height). Anytime there's a slight lean to the left or right, it's only natural to lean the opposite direction yourself to try to will them back to the center. It makes sense, but sadly, it doesn't really help them out much. They're pretty much on their own.

It's funny how much I've felt like a tightrope walker these past few politically-charged months in America. I've felt like I've had to walk on this narrow, straight line without leaning too much to the left or to the right because if I do, I'll fall to serious injury or death. As I've tried to walk this narrow rope, I've had people to both my left and my right, each trying to will me to their side of of the rope and away from the other side for fear I may fall victim to what's on the other side. On both sides of the rope are people I respect and trust, but yet why can these people on each side say such awful things about the people I respect and trust on the other side? I have to admit, it's been stressful. Like watching a tightrope walker. Except I am the tightrope walker.

Picking a side isn't safe- much like tightrope walking isn't safe. Holding an opinion isn't safe- especially in a cultural that's so quick to label one as "hating" the moment there's disagreeing opinions. Voicing an opinion leaves you vulnerable to fall to one side or another and to be scorned by the other side for doing so. There's cultural risk involved and a risk of upsetting someone you may respect and care about because it might not be the side that they lean to. However, is tightrope walking really the best way to live? Is it best to go through life keeping your thoughts to yourself and trying not to fall to one side or another so as not to step on any toes?

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. But one thing is for sure: to really love people and stand up for them and for what you believe in, it often requires picking a side. Otherwise you're silent. And when you're silent, much like I have been as I've tried walking my tightrope, you're watching the problem grow, and when you just watch and do nothing, you become part of why the problem is a problem in the first place. Loving people isn't safe and safe isn't always best.

With that, I want to end this post with a poem my friend Landry Harlen wrote a few months ago for This Land Press. In his words, "Safety is never worth hate."

Safe

Added a padlock to the fence,
I am safe,
nine different passwords,
I am secure.

New model with crash sensor,
we are safe,
no needles for my kids,
they are secure.

No secondary colors,
no strangers with strange names.
Let’s just play it safe.

Pistol under the pillow,
pistol in the purse,
pistol in the pocket,
semi-automatic in the safe.

No more movie theaters,
no more marathons,
no more Bible groups,
no more company parties.
Safe.

More SPF,
more insurance,
more check-ups,
more pills,
more cages.

WE ARE SAFE.

-Cliff

Landry's Note: "Safety is never worth hate."

"Help!" Cries the American Millennial

Imagine for a quick moment that you, not being a nuclear physicist, are sitting at a table drinking coffee with Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and Niels Bohr as they discuss nuclear physics for a couple of hours. How much do you think you'd have to contribute to the conversation? Do you think you'd say anything, or do you think you'd just sit there trying to take it all in and keep up with a dumbfounded look upon your face?

- - -

Today, I sat at a table with five guys, all of whom are close friends of mine, over brunch, and I didn't say a word for more than an hour and a half. We had fresh biscuits and gravy, eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, coffee and mimosas, a brunch for the ages, as we celebrated one of our friends being back in town from grad school. Now, you might ask, how does someone sit at a table with five friends over a celebration brunch like that and not say a word the entire time (Aside from because of having a mouth full of food)? Easy- the person, in this case me, has no opinion or idea of how to communicate or keep up with the topic of conversation being discussed at the table- kind of like the situation illustrated above, except the topic of discussion wasn't nuclear physics and my five friends aren't nuclear physicists; the topic was politics and the U.S. government, and they're just American citizens.

The only C I ever received in school was in my U.S. Government class that I took for college credit my junior year of high school. This was in 2008, an election year, making it a perfect year to take U.S. Government. There was always something to to talk about in class, and there were always some heated debates between the students; however, It was in that class that I really understood that I didn't understand politics, and it was in that class that I began to learn that I had a really hard time learning the American political system. At the time as a 17-year-old, it was easy to use the excuse, "I just don't like politics," as a way to explain my below-normal C grade that I'd received for my lack of class participation and terrible exam scores; however, now that I'm 25, that excuse does not and cannot work anymore. I've gone from simply not understanding politics as a 17-year-old to the extreme of not even being able to hold a political opinion or discussion of any kind as a 25-year-old fully-functioning member of American society. That's not okay.

At today's brunch with the guys, political terminology so simple as "taxes," "foreign policy," and "house of representatives" was being discussed, and I couldn't even define what those things were in my head, much less provide some sort of opinion or insight into the concepts themselves. The truth that I didn't and don't understand democracy or the U.S. government as a whole was never as real as it was today at 12:15 p.m.

But what can I do, and am I alone in this as an American Millennial who grew up thinking I didn't like politics when in reality I just didn't understand them? 

This year's election is one of the craziest elections to have ever taken place (so I hear), and sadly, it's the first election I've actually tried to form an opinion around and follow closely in order to make a justified decision on November 8th. It's an election that's frustrated me, made me scoff and made me laugh because I didn't know what else I could do.

Who can I trust? What media outlet is least biased? What friends or family am I going to offend when I have to try to justify why I voted the way I voted in two week? These are the questions that keep my mind racing and make politics and having an actual political opinion hard for a person like me who hates conflict and doesn't understand government (a terrible combination, if I do say so myself). In a day in age that's quick to peg someone with the word "hate" the moment there's disagreement in the picture, it can be scary and overwhelming. 

It's a year where it feels like the pressure is on our country, our leaders and the people electing those leaders to make justified decisions, and I simply want to be one of those people. I desire to be an informed and educated American voter who's heard both sides of the argument, qualifying me to make a justified decision, and I desire to care about and to understand the ideology of our leaders and the policies and procedures they want to lead our country with. There's no way this election comes out with everyone understanding why people voted they way they did or with everyone being happy with the end result, but regardless, like any election, it must come out with a UNITED States. I think that's something we can all care about.

-Cliff

Cliff's Note: Never not like or care about something just because you don't understand it, especially when that something runs your country.