Absolute

“Look,” he says, “I am always different from other peoples.  Absolute.  I am always working and moving and running.  I never stop.  I never want to miss the animals, the show, the life.  Peoples come to see me.  I want to give 100%.  Absolute.  I think I already make some history in circus.  But I must keep going.  More animals to do, more tricks, more fun.”
Peggy Williams remembers a scene last winter when GG-W [Gunther Gebel-Williams] brought his family to a circus ski party in the hills of North Carolina.  It was a rare appearance for him, sharing an off-day with the rest of the denizens of the big top, and Gebel-Williams made the most of it.  He helped the younger ones with their equipment.  He swooped past everybody on the slopes, laughing as he went.
“None of us knew he could ski,” Williams recalls.  “Later I asked him, ‘Goob, you can handle this, too?’  He got this faraway look in his eye that I had never seen.  He sat in the snow and stared.  Then he said, ‘Yeah, yeah.  Skiing is fun.  I ski way back.  I ski before I was a kid.’ “
Right then Peggy Williams knew she had discovered the essence of Gunther Gebel Goober Giblet Williams.  It was so easy.  Most kids dream they run away to join the circus.  This man, Goob, joined the circus to become a kid.  And he never stopped being one.  Absolute.
—    Gurry Kirkpatrick
From the Sports Illustrated article:  “The Greatest Showman on Earth“
Dtd:  26 September 1977
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On This Day In:
2015	Still The Best Teacher
2014	Inside The Soul
2013	A Toe In The River
2012	Believe It Or Not
2011	The Road To Recovery (And More Myths)

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