Juggling and My Mother

My mother does not want me to burn my face off.

Oh, that may seem considerate, but I kind of want to take that risk and learn to perform with fire. I have wanted to take that risk for a while and have been doing what I always do before attempting anything: research. So when I asked for a book last Christmas on fire performing to help my research, I was not at all surprised when Santa firmly refused to get me anything that may help me burn my face off. My mother assured me that she did not ask Santa not to give it to me, but I am fairly certain that she and Santa are in cahoots… At the very least, he is not in cahoots with my brothers who would very gladly like to cheer me on while I attempt to burn my face off.

In what is I am sure a veiled attempt at trying to get me to forget about burning my face off, my mother got me a children’s book on juggling over the summer. This 1986 classic, called Juggling is for Me had to be able to teach me something, right? So after a few months sitting lonely on my book shelf I picked up the book. While I was slightly confused by the two boys learning to juggle (one of which I eventually figured out was a girl) and the man in the ridiculous short-shorts, I was highly excitedly to find that one of the authors (who was also the man in the ridiculous short-shorts) was a renaissance fair performer. While I cannot find anything on Rande Aronson online, who is the aforementioned performer, beside the fact that he helped write this book, I was amused none the less and actually took the book more seriously since the book was by a performer.

The book itself is just as cheesy as the 80s, if not more so, but if you actually are interested in learning juggling, a few fun facts on the history of juggling (or are just interested in a good 80s flashback) or some great photography of juggling (which is a feat in and of its self), you may actually want to check this out .

In fact, you can get it for $0.25 on Amazon, so I’d act fast is I were you!

Also, it should be noted, Mom, that I can still burn my off learning to juggle.