JUGHEADS
Youth Juggling Company, LLC
5905 Concord Avenue
Edina, MN 55424
jugheads@comcast.net
612.229.3348

Developing youth through juggling since 1994.

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February 2005

"Lessons from Groundhog Day"

As many of you know, Wendy and I really enjoy movies. I tend to watch my favorite movies again and again, whereas Wendy most often prefers to see films for the first time. While our tastes sometimes vary, one film that ranks on each of our Top Movies Lists is Groundhog Day with Bill Murray (1993). It's part Twilight Zone, part romantic comedy, part morality tale. "What would you do with eternity?" is a question posed by the plot. Murray, playing Phil Connors, wakes up day after day on February 2 in a small town in Pennsylvania to report on whether or not the most famous of groundhogs will see his shadow, predicting either an early spring or six more weeks of winter.

Connors goes through stages of shock, hedonism, and despair before finally realizing that his predicament finds its deepest meaning when he lives for others rather than for himself. This takes the form of changing flat tires for elderly ladies and catching careless kids falling out of trees. However, Connors also develops skills which indirectly serve others. Ice sculpting and jazz piano playing take years to master, and although the character obviously had to devote part of his "eternity" to these art forms, his end goal was to bless others with his newly acquired talents; becoming skilled was not an end in itself.

I've already given away enough of the film, but I still recommend it for everyone who'd like a little mid-winter perk to strive against self-centered despair and strive toward others-centered hope. Juggling is a prime example of a skill that seems (on the surface) to be frivolous at best and self-absorbed at worst, but it can also be a tool through which a youth can learn self-discipline, goal-setting, and personal development, among other virtues. And like Phil Connors, the truly successful Jughead shouldn't see membership here as an end in itself, but rather as a metaphor for how this "frivolous" activity can serve others, either directly or through the character they develop along the way.