Practice until you are done, and then Practice some more

We took the kids to see the Cirque de Soleil show Kooza today. This is my 4th Cirque show, and I enjoy myself every time. There are certain elements that I can always count on. There will be crazy clowns that ensure audience participation. There will be amazing acts of physical prowess and stamina. And unless I read the plot ahead of time, I will have no idea what is actually going on with the story.

That is a great thing about Cirque shows. The storyline is always present, and is deep and thoughtful, intended to evoke our emotional side. But the action within show keeps you entertained for 2 hours even when you have no idea what's going on. You can catch the occasional glimpse, and you can get the general gist of things. There is a beginning, middle, and end that doesn't require any guesswork.

What blows my mind when I sit in the audience is the physical and mental stamina of the performers. The contortionists, the jugglers, the trapeze artists all are flawless in the execution of their acts. As I watch them flip and flow about, I think about the hours of practice time they have put into their performance. They must absolutely love what they do, to do it over and over and over again, and then put it out on display for the world to see.

Sometimes, despite the best execution, you will see a slip or a miss. For all the practice and preparation, sometimes things just don't go along as planned. But the performers don't stop. They pick themselves up and the audience goes wild, because it seems as much as we love those amazing acts, we don't mind seeing that these performers are actually human after all. We all make mistakes right?

This near religious devotion required to be a performer for the great Cirque de Soleil organization is inpiring to me as a writer. A writer needs to practice their craft with the same level of motivation. Before something is ready for "showtime" it needs to be rewritten, edited, practiced. Even when it is ready, sometimes we still make mistakes. We are only human after all. But that should never stop us. We must continue to practice, because it is only through practice can we hope to achieve perfection.