Send in the Clowns

While Judy Collins made this song a hit, my favorite version can be found on iTunes. It is performed by Renato Russo. Look it up, listen to it, and buy it...it's wonderfully depressing.


Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.

Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move.
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.

Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.

Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer,
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.

(A Little Night Music)

It would be nice to have clowns sent in at times in our lives when things did not go exactly the way we had hoped or planned they would, if for nothing else than to distract us from moments of grief, despair, or embarrassment. Then again, maybe 'we're already here'. We're the clowns. Not in the circus, rodeo, or theatrical sense. We are clowns in the most superficial sense. We wear painted-on smiles, and fake emotions in a an attempt of hiding our true thoughts and feelings behind layers of make-up and silly clothes. Whether we use it as a defense mechanism or a way to cope with the pain of loss, it serves its purpose however helpful or detrimental it may be. We do it so well and so often that at times it is hard, even for us, to separate fact from fiction. This makes us not only clowns, but fools as well. We make it difficult to see beyond our bulbous red noses and out into the world beyond. We spend so much time protecting ourselves that we forget that the most meaningful and long-lasting relationships that we form are done when the animal-shaped balloons and water-spraying flowers are put away, when the make-up is removed, and when we are us in our truest, RAWest, and arguably our finest form. Our true friends will not only laugh at our jokes and ridiculous antics, they will also love us when they see, the frown beneath the smile, the bare-feet inside when the over-sized shoes are taken off, and the plain clothes when the brightly-colored costume is removed. Let us to continue to be clowns when the occasion warrants, but let us never play the part of the fool.