Everything you do in life is a tradeoff. You get a hot dog or an ice cream but not both. You can be a class clown or a diligent student. Go out for a sport or hang out in the parking lot and smoke reefer. Go out with the ugly chick who’s actually into you or waste your time making sad puppy dog eyes at the good looking girl who doesn’t know you exist, or care. College or travel. Career or kids. Long term, high interest bonds or Vegas.
It Was a Full House
It’s the Archimedean Principle of life. You can’t do two things in the same time at the same place. At least not two mutually contradictory things.
I just got back from my daughter’s big ballet school year end performance. It was quite different from last year’s. Which means the powers that be, either the directors of the school or whoever they appointed to script and choreograph the whole shebang, made a decision to do it differently. I’m not saying they made a wrong choice. During the performance, I kind of felt they had, but I can see both sides and now I’m not so sure. All I’m saying is, a tradeoff was made.
Last year it was all about the kids. They had a maximum of one adult per piece, and sometimes not even that. Also, it was a series of pieces and not one continuous show. It was a lot more amateurish and there were even a couple of moments of unintended comedy.
This year there were a lot of adult, professional dancers involved, playing central roles and, in a couple of cases, holding the stage on their own. One particularly annoying scene, to me, was when all of the kids -one by cute little one – ran across the stage to give a flower to the newly awakened Sleeping Beauty. It drew lots of applause, of course, because everybody, at least for a moment, could see their child in the spotlight, but all it showed was that they’d learned how to put on their costume and run across a stage on tippy-toes.
So, on the one hand, I felt the kids got short-changed. On the other hand, it was a slicker and more impressive production. Like I say, a tradeoff.
I asked Isabel after the show if she’d liked this year or last year better, and she said this year. So, maybe I’m completely off base, or maybe she just has the attention span of a 5 year old – which would not be surprising, as she is a 5 year old.
www.gurukalehuru.com 