My grandfather, Robert Wich, was an amateur gymnast. Below, you’ll see a photo of him doing a routine with his gymnastics partner (I’m assuming that this photo was taken in the early 1920’s My grandfather is the one in the air).

I am trying to respect this family tradition, but I find it easier to do impressive acrobatics in my own way at the Oto-phay Op-Shay Branch of the YMCA. Here I am performing the rarely seen finger-balancing routine with my gymnastics partner, Edie White. I’m also attaching a close-up so you can appreciate the critical placement of fingers.

Edie White and I come from wildly different backgrounds. I grew up in Florissant and Overland Missouri, ending up in law school. My only connection to the military is that my dad was a military contractor who designed cruise missiles. Edie, who is young enough to be my son, grew up in Little Rock Arkansas and joined the military, serving two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan, totaling almost three years overseas. He is still active duty in the army. Yet we have learned over the past several months that we have a lot in common, including an urge to clown around.

One of the coolest things about people is they ALL have so much in common. I often revel in this thought of our overwhelming commonalities in these contentious times. If this idea fascinates you too, check out the lists within this article I wrote earlier: “The Shocking Sameness of Human Behavior,” an article inspired by Donald Brown’s 1991 work, “Human Universals.”