Center Of Gravity

Christmas shopping makes me feel like I am walking on a high wire. I have to know what I want and the best way to get it in the shortest amount of time.

Ideally, I like to get all of my shopping done in just under 30 minutes. Okay, 60 minutes max.

Time becomes a balancing act. Have you ever looked at people’s faces when they are shopping? It’s a combination of delirium, exhaustion and tension. High tension.

We may as well be walking on high-wires. High-wire's roots are as old as ancient Egypt and first century China, where the art of "rope dancing" was performed over knives.

Sometime during the 1850s, Jean Francois Gravelet received world acclaim for cooking and eating an omelette (complete with stove and neatly set table) on a high-wire stretched over Niagara Falls. Talk about tension.

So how do we enjoy life without tension? How do we get everything that has to be done yesterday done today without falling off of our high-wire?

Acrobats train for years and use mechanics to safely develop routines. Instead of developing a routine of rushing, we can develop a routine of balance.

We have to balance. Don’t let tasks pile up to the point of them being overwhelming. Don’t wait until the last minute to shop. Do it a little at a time - before December.

Try online shopping. No parking. No lines. No pushing. No shoving. No bad attitudes. No fighting against time.

Although a high-wire performance may seem like a combination of courage and magic, there's a lot of work and physics thrown into the balance as well.

If the center of mass is not directly above the wire, gravity will cause the performer to begin to rotate about the wire. If this is not corrected, the performer will fall.

The artist often carries a balancing pole that may be as long as 12 meters (39 feet) and weighs up to 14 kilograms (31 pounds). This pole increases the rotational inertia of the artist, which allows more time to move his or her center of mass back to the desired position directly over the wire.

The key is that we have to allow more time to balance. More time to prepare. More time to breathe. More time to move our bodies. Since we don’t have the luxury of physically carrying a pole with us, we have to do it mentally - spiritually.

The pole helps balance by lowering the center of gravity. That’s what we have to do when we feel rushed - lower our center of gravity, thus our tension.

Shopping shouldn’t be a nightmare, when it could be a joy and joy is something you should never fight.

Happy shopping and a joyous weekend everybody.