Balancing Act

As we all know, all things in life can be referenced to a Seinfeld, Simpsons, Arrested Development, or Friends episode. Trust me, give it a try. Haven’t we all wanted to be a mascot for a minor league baseball team? Gone out with that girl with man hands? Joined an alliance of Magicians? Been infatuated with a girl then meet someone else only to find out the girl you were infatuated with is now infatuated with you which causes you to get your second divorce only to date for a little while, break up, then get back together when you are like 45 years old and still living in a two bedroom apartment with the same people you did 12 years ago? Yeah, same here. Its like they were broadcasting our lives into our homes every Thursday night. Which is weird because they never showed them watching TV with a show about a group of Friends.

So we come to the concept of balance. As some of you may recall the Seinfeld episode where everything seems to balance out for Jerry, it couldn’t be more true to life. To put it in economic terms, in the long run we always return to the equilibrium. This could also explain the return of the denim outfit and square sunglasses, maybe that’s just the equilibrium of American fashion. That’s a frightening thought. What goes around, comes around, cyclical. Moving wave-like though, and I am sure there is some kind of calculus formula for the area under a sine wave that explains it all, but I wasn’t the best student in that subject. I was pretty good at trig and geometry…must be the world of balances balancing out my math skills.

“If you had a friend who was a tightrope walker and you were walking down the sidewalk and he fell, that would be completely unacceptable” – Mitch Hedberg

Balance is important. Yin and Yang. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Day and Night. Neo and Agent Smith. One cannot exist without the other and too much of one will kill you. Too much of anything is bad for you…water = drown, sun = dehydration, alcohol = alcohol poisoning, The Brady Bunch = an overwhelming feeling Marsha is always stealing your thunder that leads to a mental break down and intervention by Peter who seems to be the only person who noticed, at which point Alice comes in and discovers the dog is missing and blames you for not being responsible. It never pays to be jealous. Oh, right, or too much of one thing.

So as you can see, balance is a good thing to have in life. Financial, emotional, love, communication. It keeps us from spinning off into the universe or being swallowed into a deep, dark hole – which you find to be really big worm with teeth that just happens to be using your asteroid hideaway as a den (you can never have too many Star Wars references, oh wait, that contradictory to my whole point, so I guess you can). And when the down times come, and they do, remember things will get better, things balance, times will return to the equilibrium and beyond. Try to see the best of a situation and it won’t make the bad times seem so bad and soon you will be back to your old, wonderful self. I think this pertains to so many of you that this is intended for no one in particular. Maybe I am writing this to myself, who knows.

Balance is found everywhere in nature. Tides, seasons, earthquakes, air pressure, lightning…they are all looking for equilibrium. Balance wins championships in the sports world. Balance keeps you from falling off exercise apparatuses, taking a nice gash out of your shin that requires 12 stitches, while you were playing around at your sister’s middle school track meet. I wish I had better balance.