The Wheel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone has fascinations in life.  The one thing that, no matter where you are, if you see it or hear it, you pause, just for a moment and breathe in just to capture the feeling of being in it’s presence.  Yours may be the mountains, the sunset, a red Ferrari, a pair of Jimmy Choo’s,  … mine, the ferris wheel.  I can’t pass one without staring up at it and taking in the candy colors against the blue sky.

You can fall in love on it, feel on top of the world, feel the downward plunge or the upward climb, feel stuck or feel free, throw up or rock with excitement, or throw-up because you’re rocking with excitement.  It’s colorful and inviting, yet repititious and cyclical.  Most of all, once you step on, the only thing you have control over is your emotions, and even that might be questionable.

Do I love to ride them?  No.  Look?  Yes, but ride?  Not so much.  It may have something to do with my incredible fear of heights, or rather insatiable love of gravity as I like to see it, but I have not set foot on one since I was 8 years old and begged the oporator on every pass by to let me off…”LET ME OFFFFFFF!”  I am not proud to admit this, but I am honest.

I think I’ve yelled this (in my head of course) a few times over the past few years, not to the carnie, but to God.  ”Let me off!”  This ride was supposed to be pretty and fun, exhilarating in fact, not make my head spin and my stomach knot.  ’Be patient…Enjoy the view…Breathe in the fresh air…Your turn will come around,’ He advises as I shout “WHAT?!” over the noise of the situation.

Maybe it’s what draws me to the ferris wheels… beyond the gorgeous colors and great symmetry, the challenge to get back on and conquer the wheel.  The same feeling awaits me when the alarm rings in the morning.  The challenge to prove that, I too can give my life over to the operator for 5 minutes and sit back and enjoy the view.

{L}

“I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris Wheel.” ~ E.B. White