I think we juggle a lot of things in life. We juggle our personal lives with our work lives. We juggle time between friends and obligations. We juggle responsibilities.
But this week? I’m just going to juggle. Small objects. Red juggling balls, mostly. And probably some goslings, as well:
Aren’t they just adorable? I picked them up from a vendor at San Diego Comic-Con a few years back. (If you don’t get the reference, “juggling goslings” is a concept from the canceled Fox show Firefly.) Actually, I bought the juggling geese before I even learned how to juggle properly!
These days I can juggle… badly. I first learned to juggle in high school - occasionally our gym teacher would bring out a bin of what I can only call “miscellaneous stuff,” some of which was juggling equipment and video tapes. My friends and I very nearly learned how to juggle scarves.
A few years and a set of juggling geese later, I found out that I could take a class in juggling to fulfil one of my required gym credits for college. That actually went really well, since the instructor for the class was Jeff Peden, father of world-class juggler Wes Peden. Jeff was a super awesome instructor, and thanks to him I can actually juggle three balls now, and can almost juggle two. (Juggling two is the first step toward juggling four… juggling even numbers is actually very different from juggling odd numbers!)
So the reason that I’m not very good at juggling has nothing to do with my instructor… it’s simply because I don’t practice enough. I was pretty good about juggling every day when I was enrolled in the course, but that was a year ago. I haven’t made any progress since then. But I really, really want to.
Why Juggle?
Have you ever noticed that people who can juggle are awesome? Just in general - their awesome meter is larger and fuller than the average joe. I’m sure there’s a scientific study about that somewhere: The Effects of Juggling Skill Level on Overall Awesomeness In Humans Over the Age of Nine or something.
Ok, even if I just made that up, it does make a lot of sense. Juggling is both a mental and physical skill. It draws on a variety of talents, such as coordination (which I could always use more of), spatial relations, rhythm, concentration, stamina, and the ability to crack jokes and entertain an audience while keeping several objects in the air.
That last part is particularly important, because I’m the “funny aunt” now that my sister has children. I am not to be outdone by my brother, the funny uncle! Who, by the way, can also juggle, which is what makes this so important. There’s only room for one awesome and hilarious juggler in this family!
So, starting this week, I will juggle every day, to try and make a habit of it. If there’s interest, I may even post a few videos of me juggling (badly). What do you say? Would you like to see me juggle?
There was an article in Newsweek about 5 years ago that talked about a research study showing that people who juggled had better brain plasticity and memory than people who did not. This was not a correlational study, either; people who took up juggling developed better brain plasticity and memory.
Sam, how did I know I could always trust you to bust out the research! I have to say, I like it better when what you find backs me up instead of conflicting with me.
It makes sense, though, if you’ve ever done any juggling. There’s a lot more to it than just muscle memory (although that is, of course, a part of it).
This is just genius. I might have to learn to juggle too! Especially if it makes me a smarty pants. Thanks Steph!