CARTWHEEL AND THE LITTLE BOY

The boy was about five years old.  He was unable to perform a cartwheel in front of a spontaneous tourist crowd of about 400 people.  He had volunteered along with two other young people, a girl and boy about age eight, to stand before a Venice beach, California crowd of tourists from around the world.  None of the young people knew what they would be asked.  They were offered $20 each for volunteering to do something.... a something they did not know in advance.  .

With the background of beach and ocean, the hundreds of women, children and men stood in awe of the setting and what might happen.  Everyone smiling in anticipation.  Three children volunteered to stand in the middle of all this, without knowing what they would be asked to do.  Two boys and one
girl all between age five and eight.  After some comedic performance by the facilitators, the children were asked to do a Cartwheel. 

The girl did a partial cartwheel.  The next boy did a little less of one.  The third little one, about five, froze in place.  He could not do a cartwheel, or a partial one and was frozen in place. He could not move. 

One of the young gymnastic type men, rather than pressure the boy, or encourage him further, simply walked over to him, gently, with the boy's permission, picked him up and helped him do a cartwheel, standing in place.  He did it with compassion, kindness and respect for the little boy. 

As I stood at the edge of the crowd circle, and seeing how they spoke with and treated the boy, I cried inside and outside.  The crowd applauded and yelled, "yes." That little boy was me, and probably most young children who had been pressured, judged and embarrassed for falling short of expectations, believing themselves wrong.  My body released a tension I did not know existed since childhood.   The boy was OK just as he was, and who he was.  No embarrassment, pressure or shame.