Can I just take a minute to vent a bit? In my search and surf for information about tightrope, SO much of what I come across isn’t related to actual tightroping at all! Tightrope and highwire are used as metaphors for everything—much to my dismay…or annoyance and indignation depending on the day. My grand hobby has been hijacked!
Though it hinders my efforts to find useful information for self-training, I could come to terms with my passion being an overused metaphor. After all, I’m definitely guilty of excessive tightrope analogizing myself…this blog is the evidence. Besides, I should feel proud that my obsession and ambition is a feat that captures people’s imagination, that the words are evocative and compelling. If only that were all. When you search Amazon.com using the keywords tightrope or highwire, some1 of the books are actually about:
Though it hinders my efforts to find useful information for self-training, I could come to terms with my passion being an overused metaphor. After all, I’m definitely guilty of excessive tightrope analogizing myself…this blog is the evidence. Besides, I should feel proud that my obsession and ambition is a feat that captures people’s imagination, that the words are evocative and compelling. If only that were all. When you search Amazon.com using the keywords tightrope or highwire, some1 of the books are actually about:
- Women and fat oppression
- Small group teams
- Vietnamese American family life
- Gay priests
- Soviet women
- LAPD leadership
- Diabetes
- Zen for actors
- Human rights in China
- African Americans in the corporate world
- Stress
- Bioethics
- Valued aging
- + Lots of biographies, novels, and life-balance self-help books
I confront this array of topics with dismay: embattled minorities, controversy, dilemmas, almost impossibly narrow margins for victory. They are important topics, but still…I protest! I object! I feel somehow…betrayed. Balancing is my happy place. Those books are not.
Fine, yes, tightwires are narrow, highwires are high, the risks are real, so I grudgingly admit that it seems like a good metaphor for situations where the solution isn’t easy and the margin for victory is slim. Hopefully some of the above books at least give some suggestions for navigating their chosen “tightrope act.” Just the same, given the depressing array of topics listed above, I feel it is my duty as a tightwire-obsessed, controversy-avoidant, happy-ending-loving equilibrist blogger to provide some balance: I’m doing my level best to gather and put down in this blog space as many purely inspiring, deeper, and richer analogies as I can.
So to end, here are a few of my favorite quotes2 that go beyond the mere narrowness of the cable and focus on what makes tightrope inspiring:
Humor, love, persistence, and going outside our comfort zone, plus proof of our nearly limitless potential to achieve the seemingly impossible—that is what highwire and tightrope are all about for me.
Fine, yes, tightwires are narrow, highwires are high, the risks are real, so I grudgingly admit that it seems like a good metaphor for situations where the solution isn’t easy and the margin for victory is slim. Hopefully some of the above books at least give some suggestions for navigating their chosen “tightrope act.” Just the same, given the depressing array of topics listed above, I feel it is my duty as a tightwire-obsessed, controversy-avoidant, happy-ending-loving equilibrist blogger to provide some balance: I’m doing my level best to gather and put down in this blog space as many purely inspiring, deeper, and richer analogies as I can.
So to end, here are a few of my favorite quotes2 that go beyond the mere narrowness of the cable and focus on what makes tightrope inspiring:
| Humor | A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life. ~William Arthur Ward |
| Risk | Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope. ~Edith Wharton |
| Persistence | Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. ~Oprah |
| Love | I walk that tightrope of love for you The rope is narrow in size But loving you makes it seem so wide ~Charlie Foxx |
1 If you replicate my search on Amazon you will probably note that I pick and choose from amongst the results for dramatic effect. Call it artistic license or dramatization, it undoubtedly fails scientific standards of an unbiased, representative cross-section.
2 I reserve the right to use these as my header quote in later posts. Don’t despise me, extensive internet surfing has only yielded a finite quantity of tightwire quotes and analogies. If you have any you’d like to share, please do—I collect.
2 I reserve the right to use these as my header quote in later posts. Don’t despise me, extensive internet surfing has only yielded a finite quantity of tightwire quotes and analogies. If you have any you’d like to share, please do—I collect.
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