Today we all went to the Circus at the Bobcats Arena. I hadn’t been to the circus in about seven years and before that I think I went when I was in elementary school. All I remembered about the circus was the elephants, the trapeze, and the tight rope. They still have those things, but there is so much more to it now. There was a Circ de Soile type of act along with two people doing very difficult balancing and twisting things. There was a rotating bar with two big cyclindars on it with people inside of it doing tricks while it spun around. A very long gymnastics lane was brought out and about eight guys did flips and tumbles that were very impressive. I could go on and on. Actually, the show seemed to go on and on….so much so that there was an intermission and a second set. The whole thing lasted about two hours and twenty minutes. I guess they really wanted everyone to get their moneys worth since it was somewhat expensive.
We typically only send one parent and the two older kids to events like this to save money, but we decided to splurge and have the whole family go. In hindsight, we could have left Miller at home. He watched but wasn’t as excited as I thought he would be. Actually, none of the kids were as excited as we thought that they would be. They watched intently but they only “oohed and aahed” at the very beginning. Tom and I really enjoyed it. We thought that the gymnastics routines were very difficult and entertaining. Maybe you have to be an adult in order to understand the gravity of what these people were doing. I was also impressed with the live band that played the entire time. That added to the show.
Going to the circus again did make me realize two things:
1- The circus is still just a bunch of people doing odd and amazing things…just like it always has been. There is just more lights and sparkle to it than before.
2- I knew that I may have a problem with the whole “trained animals” thing. I am by no means an animal rights activist, but it is hard to see wild animals kept in cages and doing unnatural things. I realized that I still feel bad for the elephants and the tigers. For example, there was a guy in a large cage with sixteen Siberian tigers. He had them doing tricks and rolling over. A tiger is not meant to hop like a rabbit. How degrading for the largest of all of the large cats! He probably gets made fun of by all of the other tigers. At least they looked healthy and are probably fed and treated well.
We had fun together as a family. We took the Light Rail into town (along with a thousand other people). The train dropped us off right at the arena which was nice. We also had great seats. Now that I am older I have realized that most things aren’t worth going to unless you have good seats. We were in about the fifteenth row and could see everything perfectly. I am glad that we did this together. The kids got to experience something new and exciting and see things that they would not normally see. I don’t think we will be going to the circus every year, but it was a great experience today.