Episode 122 - Keeping Your Feet on the Ground

This week I joined a Frisbee club. I have to admit I was a little nervous having never been part of a Frisbee club, but thankfully no-one took it too seriously and it was a lot of fun. It was a warm sunny day and the ground was dry. The funny thing about grass though, is that even when it’s dry, it’s slippery. On TV it’s the banana skin that’s king of the unexpected slippery substance list, in real life though, grass has to be up there somewhere. Every time I tried to turn quickly or come to a sudden stop, my feet would slide out from underneath me and I would end up in a heap on the ground. The famous expression which extolled the need to keep one’s feet on the ground came to mind. But what does it really mean?

We tend to immediately think it calls for the need to sacrifice excitement, or creativity, or adventure, to make place for caution and sensibility and seriousness. Our culture often tells us that we are either one or the other, that the two cannot coincide. Indeed, I did sacrifice in order to keep my feet on the ground. I moved less, and when I did I moved less suddenly. I did in fact keep my feet on the ground, but at what cost? I became unable to create much space and had to settle for less incisive passing, in short, I became a worse player, but one which was at least stood upright. But if we keep our feet on the ground by not moving at all have we really gained anything at all? 

Well in the end I decided no, I just gave into falling over sometimes. And after the game what really should have been obvious was expressed by one of the other players; what I really needed was a pair of studded boots. Perhaps that’s what we all need life; something to help us adhere our creativity to caution and our seriousness to our adventure. Perhaps even, what our world needs are people who are willing to be those studded boots and hold the two worlds together.