I love the fair season in Minnesota: the smells of cotton candy, popcorn, and 4-H animals wafting through the air.

A few years ago, I took my nephews, Charlie and Josh, to the local fair. We had a good time taking in the sights as we ambled toward our ultimate goal, the Midway. The giant yellow slide made two sets of eyes light up. They wanted to ride down that big yellow slide. I was skeptical. Charlie, 14 at the time, is autistic and not very coordinated. Josh was a couple years younger and always trustworthy; he said he’d help Charlie get on the gunny sack and follow him down. Up the long flight of stairs they trudged.

Charlie was ahead of Josh. He threw his gunny sack down and with barely time to sit he began his swift descent to the bottom. Half-way down the slide, one shoe came off. Then he got a burn when he tipped sideways and ran his arm down the metal slide. Josh didn’t fare well either. In his effort to catch Charlie, he threw down his gunny sack but overshot it when he jumped. He took off ahead of the sack, careening down the slide sideways almost somersaulting when he hit the carpet at the bottom. As we walked away, Josh said, “Well, that wasn’t one of my better ideas.”

We’ve probably all reflected after the fact “that wasn’t one of my better ideas”, but it takes a lot of unsuccessful ideas to come up with one really great one.

Want to remember the feeling of going down the big yellow slide? Click here!

The road is easier together,

Linda Laitala, President
Raven Performance Group