Note From the Bouncy Castle

In one of my more philosophical moments two years ago, I said to a friend: you don’t need much more for a good time than a grill with bratwurst on it, beers, and a bouncy castle for the kids. Well, they said, do it then. I will, I said, but then didn’t. Every time we met, though, I was reminded: when’s the bouncy castle party?

This year, after once more being reminded that one can’t just talk the talk when it comes to bouncy castles, it’s happening. It’s happening today. There’s a fridge full of beer. Another fridge full of bratwurst. And there’s a bouncy castle folded-up in my driveway, waiting to be filled with air, eager to do what it’s made to do.

Let me tell you this: when you’re waiting to put up a bouncy castle in your garden — that’s not a time for Thinking or Writing. When you’re about to go outside into the sun, to hop around on an inflatable structure that looks like a mountain hut decorated for Christmas (I didn’t get to pick the design), the part of your brain responsible for Deep Thoughts turns off.

So let me leave you with a little thought that’s been bouncing around my head (I just did, yeah) for a while now.

It’s going to sound trivial and I guess I should’ve had this realisation a long time ago, but I didn’t and maybe that’s why the surprise was that big for me. Here it is:

I’ve always thought of my strengths as things I can do even though they’re hard. Things that I’ve worked on, that are exhausting, that I’ve trained for, that take me a lot of effort, but that I can still do. These are my strengths — things not everybody can do, but I can, because I worked hard at it.

Then someone said to me about something: that’s a strength of yours. No, it isn’t, I said, that’s very easy to do. For you, he said, but just because it’s easy for you, doesn’t mean it’s easy for others, and just because — or maybe: because of that — it’s easy for you or comes naturally to you, doesn’t mean it’s not a strength of yours. Things that come easy to you, he said, can be strengths, there’s no requirement that strain or lots of effort have to be involved.

He’s right and it’s obvious when put like that, but it took his explanation for me to see it.

Now that I do see it, a lot of things and ideas look different — better. A conversation that didn’t take more than two minutes gave more optimistic, healthier perspective on everything relating to personal strengths: what it means to play to one’s strength, how to take pride in one’s work, and all that.

Maybe this little idea — personal strengths can be things that come easy to you — also changes something for you.

And with that: to the bouncy castle.