Send In The Clowns

This morning Mimi, Bubba,(AKA my mom and dad) Josh, Kristen and I all tagged along with Jackson to see the Ringling Bros. Circus at the Patriot Center.  Jackson has been talking about this for weeks, and I think we were all as excited as he was to see the circus.

I was near tears twice during the circus. At the very beginning, when the elephants and zebras first came in, the look of pure, innocent joy on Jackson's face was priceless.  He's the thing that keeps me from becoming too jaded and cynical, and it is moments like that that keep me going.  He definitely liked the animal acts more than the clowns or flying people and as intermission neared, he was definitely getting antsy for more animals, especially the tigers.  He'd seen the Ringling Bros. commercial on television and every time we talked about the circus, he talked about the tigers.

Just before the second act, the announcer mentioned the tigers and after the elephants left, the stage crew finally brought out the tiger equipment.  Then the floor manager started shaking his head "no" and made the cutting motion across his throat; the crew came back out and took all of the tiger equipment away.  I have no idea what prevented the tigers from appearing.  According to the Ringling Bros. Web site, there are 12 tigers that perform in this version of the circus.  You'd think if one of them was having a bad day, they could still let the other 11 go on.  And so they sent in the clowns while they tried to figure out what to do.  What they did was skip to the final act and end the show.

And so I found myself near tears for the second time today, while Jackson's mommy tried to explain that the tigers weren't able to come out today because they were sick.  Because how do you explain to a boy that's been talking about tigers for over a month that they're just not going to show up for us?  I can't find anything online about a trainer being mauled or other tragedy that would prevent their appearance, so maybe the tigers just weren't feeling it today.   On the way home, Jack woke up from his nap long enough to say "Mommy, I'm sad that the tigers had a tummy ache."
  

Also, I decided today that if this consulting thing doesn't work out for me, I'm going to get a circus concession.  It's got to be more lucrative.  $12 for cotton candy, $7 for stale popcorn, and $20+ for crazy light up things.   And I know they sell a lot of the crazy light up things, because they've trained the hawkers to stop right in front of a kid and just stand there until the inevitable "I want one!" cries start.  And at three shows a day in an arena that seats about 10,000, even half full, I'm sure there are enough parents that give in that it's worth it.