Just like a circus....

Last night, my mom and sisters and I went to the Ringling Brothers Circus. We got Emily tickets there as a birthday present, because ever since Emily was little, she's loved clowns and monkeys and all of that.

I like circuses all right. I read the book Water For Elephants, which in some ways made me never want to go to a circus again.
By the way, if you've never read that book, read it! It's super bizarre, very intense as far as violence and sex goes, and yet still one of the greatest books I've ever read. It gives good insight into the circus back in the 1930's and just how cruel circuses were/are to animals and humans.
Water For Elephants, however, gives Ringling a good wrap. Ringling Bro's circus has been known for their superb treatment of animals so I didn't feel too bad going last night :)

I am just a nervous wreck when it comes to watching people perform dangerous stunts. In Donald Miller's book Searching For God Knows What, he describes going to the circus as a kid and getting so nervous watching the tight-rope walkers. I feel the exact same way. Watching acrobats and things like that is rarely enjoyable for me.
I'd rather sit, cringing and squinting, hoping that maybe that will help them not fall. My heart races and I get all stressed out. And my sisters are like "Please. He does this for a living."

I've always been one to worry, and entertaining shows don't change that in me. I sit at the edge of my seat, I pray for performers, I expect bad things to happen. In my mind I say "Please don't fall, please don't fall..." over and over.

I'm just waiting for God to give me children who climb all over everything. Watch my hair go gray from stress by age 30.


I did like the tigers. They were caged in, so I wasn't stressed that they would pounce on the audience. And for some reason, I felt comfortable as I watched the trainer work with them. He was highly outnumbered, but in total control.
Tigers are just beautiful creatures. My pal Chuckie and I have an ongoing debate over who would win in a fight, a lion or a tiger.
I KNOW a tiger would because of reading I've done on tigers. They are, by nature, killing machines. They are quicker on their feet and extremely ferocious.
I read a book called Life of Pi (another good read) about this boy from India and his parents owned a zoo there. One day, they got a tiger in the zoo. The boy's father took him and his brother near the cage and told them "Never come near this animal. He is the most dangerous animal in the world." And to make his point more clear, he threw a goat in the cage and made the boys watch the tiger tear it apart.
Still, tigers fascinate me. And if they weren't so fierce, I'd like to have one.

I have this list of things I want to do in Heaven. It's probably totally sacrilegious, to have an agenda for when I get there. But I want to do things there that I am too scared to do on earth- like skydive.
I also want to have pet tigers. I think that stems from my childhood desire to be an Arabian princess like Jasmine. I sort of hope that my mansion in Heaven is like Jasmine's. And, if the Bible is right and we do become princes and princesses in Heaven, I want to be an Arabian princess and have tigers. Orange and white tigers. :) I've already started thinking of names. And you guys are all invited over any time to pet them.