Juggling is fun (more on this later). There’s a symmetry to the fact that I first started to learn while in quarantine in 2021 (thanks Heather!) and that the first actual juggling convention is attend is also in Adelaide.
The Adelaide Juggling Convention is being held at the Goodwood Community Centre (nice bit of south Adelaide) from today (Friday 21st) until Monday 24th.
I went along not knowing anyone and was immediately made to feel welcome (shout out especially to Mark from Tasmania, Simon (?) from Melbourne and Tobias from New Zealand). The great thing about juggling, as far as I can tell, is that it’s a non-exclusive common good – meaning that sharing the skills and helping someone get better doesn’t make your life worse (I suppose, very specifically in professional juggling that *might* be a thing?) Anyhoos, I was saucer-eyed at the mad skills on display, all sorts of juggling I’d not seen except on grainy youtubes before. Someone doing very nicely indeed with six balls, people on stilts, unicycles etc. Lots of workshops going on, coffee and biscuits, spare props.
I did the first club juggling I’ve done in three months, since almostblindingmyselfviaclubmuppetrygate and was delighted to find now cobwebs, and actually picked up where i left off.
So, this has given me the additional oomph to try to get up to five ball cascades in the next few weeks, and even perhaps get the clubs stuff going again.
Btw – benefits of juggling (a non-exhaustive list)
a) emptying your mind to focus on task at hand
b) forces you to confront failure/ineptitude etc
c) allows for incremental improvement
d) let’s you plateau with a sense of accomplishment
e) invites you (gently) to improve.
marchudson.net 
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