I've done two shows since the calendar was turned from 2025 to 2026.  In many ways, they were very similar.  Both shows were in Bridgton, Maine, where my family and I have lived for 37 years.  Both were in the mornings, and both were for elderly audiences. The routines were the same in both venues. One was  a memory care facility, and another our local nursing home.  As similar as these sound, this was the first difference.  Memory care is a whole different population than nursing care.  The audience at the memory facility was attentive, responsive and enthusiastic.  They were completely aware of what was happening (how long they remembered it for is a different story).  The nursing home population is much less responsive, and even those who are mentally present enough to enjoy it are often physically less able to respond.  That's not a big deal to me, and I love performing for either group.

The difference came with my performances themselves.  In the first one, I was spot on in everything I did.  I dropped one time in the entire fifty minute show- a cigar box error that I covered quickly with some visual humor.  Even in the crowded living room that was my theatre, I confidently closed the show with machete juggling.  I was walking on air when I got home and told Sue about my morning.

My second show was much less successful.  I dropped in every juggling routine, including multiple drops with cigar boxes.  By the end, I knew it was an "off" show, so I skipped over both my balance board routine and machetes.  Back down to earth I came.

But,

I didn't accept any discouraging thoughts in while I kept the show going.  I didn't let my frustration show, and, in fact, I didn't feel frustration.  I kept the story of the Gospel going, and continued with high energy to hold the nursing home's audience's  limited attention.  I didn't leave the show thinking it was time for me to quit, nor was I a grouch all afternoon.  I prayed that the people in attendance- patients, staff, family - were blessed by the show, and I believe they were.

It was the best of shows, it was the worst of shows. But, like Charles Dickens writes later on in "A Tale Of Two Cities", “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.”  2026 is off to a fine start.