—From EF—

        On May 24, 2014, our son Eli and his lady Meg had a beautiful wedding for which they did their own planning: Quaker-style in the redwood circle at Stern Grove, and the attending throng were a testament to the many spheres in which their lives move. Radiant people, all of them, and all of them handsomely different. We felt blessed to welcome our new daughter.

         Today, Dec. 22, 2019, the Circus Center did the second of their twin benefit performances for the Coalition on Homelessness, and Meg Bishop was not only in the cast of nine but did her doubles trapeze debut with Mel Chang. Meg is a seasoned performer, but usually in a distinct persona with both feet on the ground. Today she was herself, often upside down high on a rope and bar, responsible for the safety of her partner as well as herself. It was breathtaking.

         Today’s company of nine have been rehearsing this for six months. Six months of doing full-time jobs and then doing demanding and dangerous work, putting their bodies on the line. Nobody was paying them big bucks to do this, they were all students at the Circus Center. They did it because they wanted to, and they could, and we in the audience felt their power. There are those who deride art as irrelevant, a frill, and I cry bull$%#t on that. This was an experience of seeing what risk and courage and skill can do, and how it can jolt our tired sad souls into remembering what is possible, how we can make something together that is far more than the sum of our individual selves. Thank you, Circus Center, and thank you, Meg.

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