Blackpool Tower Circus. I am 6 years old. The headline act is the famous Italian clown Charlie Caroli.
Charlie has a side-kick called Paul. Paul is willowy and plays the clarinet.
Charlie and Paul have a routine. Charlie chases Paul around the ring with a custard pie.
However, Paul is very nimble and quick. Charlie is portly and slow. He can’t catch Paul.
At one point though, Charlie does get close to Paul. So Paul jumps over the ring apron into the crowd.
Charlie then stands on the ring apron, and hurls a custard pie at Paul. Charlie’s aim isn’t very good, and it misses Paul and hits a member of the audience flush in the face.
They have come to enjoy the circus. Now they are covered in sticky custard pie.
I am ecstatic with joy.
Charlie and Paul have broken the rules.
Surely the circus can only take place inside the ring. That is what the ring is for, isn’t it?
Then to hit a member of the audience in the face with a pie. That’s not normal? But they have done.
It’s an incredible moment. Every cell inside of me feels like it is lit up by an incandescent light.
A feeling so liberating, that it seems like the moment is being imprinted indelibly inside of me.
So that its awesomeness lives on, in a new way. Not in Charlie Caroli.
But in a six year old boy who has been taken to a magical place. A place where rules and boundaries simply cannot contain spontaneity and joy.
This moment has lived on in him since, in many different ways, at many different times. Not edge of circus ring custard pie throwing.
But in other forms, that have the same feeling of creative rule breaking.
For when the Incandescent Light gets triggered, things are never the same again!
Note 1: What lights might have been switched on in Charlie Caroli? Well, maybe:
1: The Iridescent Light = the search for orginality
2: The Brilliant Light – the commitment and dedication to your art and craft
3: The Glow – the love of what you do
4: The Sparkling Light – bringing joy and magic into people’s lives
5: The Incandescent Light – the inner fire to push back boundaries
Note 2: Why Look at Moments In Time?
One of the reasons to look back at moments in time, is not to wallow in nostalgia.
But to try to see what lights have got switched on in us in those moments.
So that we have a better understanding of which lights form the major harmonics in our life.