Slacklining at the Super Bowl

Madonna brought Andy Lewis and the sport of slacklining to a mainstream audience at the Super Bowl half time show. The woman is incredible. Forget that she is 53 years old (I know, some people said she looked old, but as someone who is her age, she looked unbelievable. Not to mention the physical aspects of her act and how she sailed through them. Judging from a New Yorker article that interviewed her persoanl trainer a decade ago, the woman works out 6-8 hours a day--but still, it is impressive. Then on top of her glitz, she introduced people to the new hipster sport. My third son is a slackliner, so I knew what it was immediately, but I was not in the majority. What is this sport you ask? It is the new parkour. Slacklining is the act of balancing along a narrow, flexible piece of webbing that's low to the ground and usually anchored between two trees. Tricklining pushes it further, with professional athletes performing flips, twists and other students and competing for titles. But above all it is very cool (especially when people are doing it relatively close to the ground, as opposed to over great gulches, where the risk to life and limb is considerably greater). A big round of applause for Madonna, a middle aged woman bringing the latest to the rest of us.