The last time I went to the circus, I was about 4 years old. I remember riding on an elephant, juggling clowns, a lion, and the feeling of delight.

I did not think it possible to feel that same delight more than 20 years later, but I stand corrected! I just got back from a quick weekend outing to Monte Carlo, where the International Cirque (the Olympics for circus artists worldwide) is taking place. This time around, it was a little different from what I’d remembered- these were the best of the best circus performers in the world… not to mention there was a certain royal family in the audience as honored guests.

Among my favorite acts were a couple balancing and contorting their bodies in seemingly impossible and agonizing poses (note: must do more yoga); a lion-tamer who stood in the ring with 15 lions at once, and had them all snarling in a perfect line-up; a guy who balanced a spinning figure-8 cage on his head inside of which 2 girls were doing suspension acts; a man who did acrobatics on a narrow pipe while swinging across the entire ring from about 50′ in the air without a safety net; a team of more than 20 acrobats who did crazy jumps on stilts and giant pogo-sticks; a group of 12 girls who did these impossible backbends while balancing their entire body-weight on their chins and stacking up on top of each other; and an incredible clown who immediately engaged the audience and showed that a fairly simple act can become the most popular one just by making a personal connection (unfortunately, I was too mesmerized to capture him on film).

After sitting captivated in the audience for more than 4 hours, watching +150 performers do their thing with ropes, knives, stilts, wild animals, humor, incredible concentration and – most of all – sheer determination, I must say that I walked away with a sense of inspiration and clarity! I can completely understand why it is not just exciting but also important for kids to go to the circus. You learn that, through determination and hard work, any dream can be made a reality. This is not a lesson only for the kids, though- perhaps it’s even more important for us as adults, especially today.

I also thought about these performers in a new light, as organizational geniuses. There is barely a moment between acts, and lives are on the line if a mistake is made. Each person knows their role, knows where to be and when, and performs their tasks impeccably, as though setting up and dismantling the sets was practiced as much as each act. (Even the extensive lion cage was dismantled in under a minute.) Everyone seemed to share a sense that they were a part of something greater, and so they were really supportive of one another, even in competition. After their acts, individual groups of performers came out and sat in the seats next to ours, and I noticed they were among the first to give standing ovations. You won’t see THAT in most industries! I would love to be with them as a fly on the wall (or blogger in the stands) for the mere 2 days they had all-together before the opening circus, just to understand how they can organize like that! I mean, most of them had never met before the events, and they were speaking about 15 different languages.

Finally, a note on that clown… he spoke in little sound-effects, no language. His act began by directing the audience to raise and lower our applause, which he pretended to put in a box and had trained us to “sound the applause” based on how wide he opened the box – within about 2 seconds. He threw his hat into the audience and got people to throw it back onto his head, and would not let them give up, thus inspiring a sense of tenacity. Afterward, he juggled unsuccessfully and had us all rooting for him to get it right until, at last, he did. …And the crowd went wild. It went on like this, so simply, and everyone from the little kids to the Princess were in hysterics, captivated and hopeful. At that point, I thought, he had really shown us something wonderful.

Like a true nerd, of course I thought about the symbolic lesson for brands and social media, marketing and customer experience… in regards to the clown (yeah, I know). When you involve your audience, you can still run the show (contrary to what many companies, especially in luxury , believe). When you focus on making them successful within your scope of interest, you automatically gain a sense of reciprocity. But only through involving the audience and being a little honest about the challenges you face can you build the kind of adoration and support that makes people want to see you succeed, instead of mere indifference. They feel a personal stake in the success. Of course, that strategy doesn’t work with some jerks out there, but hopefully those guys are few and far between.

Well, Monte Carlo is certainly a place of dreams. I am now a reformed circus-cynic, and will be a staunch supporter from here on. Anything is possible!

PS- I need this hat!!!!

The whole experience kind of reminded me of a movie… a foreign movie, largely without subtitles. It’s interesting to be the foreign observer in these kind of ritualistic times because you get to see a lot of things that you normally would not. I guess the only problem is that, by not speaking the language, I certainly missed a lot. I like to play this game where I’m actually imagining what they are talking about; ad-libbing inside my own head.

So, back to the story! We packed the car full of presents, tons of food and wine, with the dog situated nicely on top, and headed out of Milan in the middle of the night for a 9-hour drive to the town of Gummersbach, near Cologne.

In Germany, it’s customary to celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so we were trying to get there by late morning. Of course, when we came out of the first Alpine tunnel heading north, there were suddenly fat snowflakes falling, which slowed us down a bit. It was a complete shift in the weather from the south-end of the tunnel, where we had been not 3 minutes earlier.

In spite of the weather, we made our destination by about 10 a.m. and then quickly headed out to the local fish farm. This place is located in a nearby valley, down a snowy one-lane street lined with kids on sleds.

Apparently, a native family has owned this place for generations, but now that extensive supermarket chains are moving into the area and the people who know how to clean and prepare local fish are fading in numbers, their customer base is dwindling. I hope the Slow Food movement makes it up there soon enough to save this place. Nevertheless, it was packed on Christmas Eve. I guess fish is pretty popular!

The afternoon was spent tracking down a Christmas tree (we got the last one in town), having kaffee und kuchen (that’s coffee and cake… with creme, butter, sugar, and more butter). Then we put the tree up, which consisted of hacking the trunk apart, stuffing it into a big blue vase, and arranging firewood around the base so the tree wouldn’t lean…

This is a much more labor-intensive approach that your typical American “shove it in the Christmas tree stand and go” approach, but also much prettier.

The finishing touch on the tree was a little surprising… it was not a star on top, it was not tinsel around the branches. It was actual candles. When I saw these being put up, I thought, “Huh. Kind of weird to put up candle sticks when you can’t light them.” Wrong. They were lit. With matches. With each one, I actually grew more nervous – probably a lingering side-effect from growing up with a very worried grandmother. The visual effect was lovely, but the psychological effect was not. Now I was thinking, “Where is the fire extinguisher?”

After dinner, we went to see a Christmas mass in a little chapel from the 1600s. Christmas carols in German- that is a new experience for the ears!

On Christmas, we went to another house for what amounted to an amazing 5 hour dinner (mostly in German, but I’m sure the conversation was interesting!) complete with rounds of sekt, white wine, then red wine, and then liquor followed by a cocktail. Whew! Of course, there was another candlelit tree right next to the table, which kept me slightly sober. The most surprising part of the night (for me) was when the flute came out. Seriously, they played the flute and sang together around the dinner table in between courses! (I’m telling you- Rockwell!)

In the next days, we were lucky to get some sunshine, and so we headed out to take part in a local tradition that apparently occurs whenever the sun shines in the winter, which is not often. We went for a walk in the forest. It was incredible, with the late afternoon light and the crisp air. 3 miles later, we headed back indoors to atone for the mild workout and had another round of kaffee und kuchen.

Our last night there, we had another big dinner which was probably the most unusual of all. It consisted of smoked salmon covered with mounds of broccoli and cauliflower, another layer of salmon, a layer of fish pate, and then rows of sliced potatoes on top. Whatever it was, it tasted good!