A Word In Edgewise: Untethered

I cheered Simone Biles’s return in August’s 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Some cried “coward” when she withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after a potentially lethal bout of the “twisties” left her airborne and lost. Their verdict; “She shoulda’ just pushed through it.”

Biles did it her way, vindicated in Antwerp bringing her World Championships and Olympics medals total to 37, and a completed Yurchenko double pike, now “Biles II.”  

An image of Biles against a black background soaring towards a bar, arms outstretched, eyes focused, flashed me to astronaut Bruce McCandless, 1984.  Black eternity his backdrop, drifting untethered. 300’ from STS-41B; a lifetime in the balance.

And then there came to mind…Danny DeVito.

Danny DeVito?  Only connect.

Biles knew her goal at six, when she saw kids at a gym working on apparatus. Adults seeing her imitate older teens better, started her training. Her grandparents had adopted the child from a difficult home situation, encouraged her and soon she was practicing 6-8 hours daily.

DeVito, spoiled only son with two older sisters, was loved and encouraged. He worked in sister Angie’s beauty shop, then deciding to learn about makeup entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. There, acting seduced him, and young DeVito plunged headfirst into all aspects of the performing arts and been immersed ever since. (DeVito is now 78, Biles 26)

Everyone performs their life on some level, using such gifts as they are given. Biles and DeVito have embraced their plusses, and overcome or utilized their minuses, and used them for others as well. Biles has a fortunate gymnast’s physique: short (4’8”), muscular (low center of gravity), energetic and to undergo the arduous training.

Minuses for Biles inevitably involve racism. She was the first black woman to win the all-around in the 2013 World Gymnastics Championships. An Italian gymnast, beaten at that and balance-beam, snarked in an interview, ““…next time we should also paint our skin black so we can win too.”  Biles noted later, “…it happens every day…But you just have to keep going for those little ones looking up to us. It doesn’t matter what you look like. You can strive for greatness, and you can be great.”

DeVito had a fond family environment, but Fairbank’s disease denied him the gift of height; his growth terminating at 4’10”. Not a movie/TV star ticket, yet that’s what he became; despite Taxi’s stellar cast–his mother Julia as Louie’s mom–DeVito was the undoubted hub of that marvelous vehicle. His height was parfait, played  against Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins. Yet, as a boy he frequently suffered bullying and humiliation for his genetically-caused shortness.

DeVito nevertheless has always been a fun-seeker, drawn to the quirky and outré. Against professional advice, he joined the second season of Sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in 2006. It’s still running; DeVito’s still in it.

It would take an insert to list all of Biles’s triumphs and medals and DeVito’s range of theater, stage, film, producing and directing credits, parts in those same, and their myriad human contacts.

Both give others hope: Biles, that young girls don’t have to train for years for a career that evaporates in their teens, and/or find herself under the power of a molester. That age can be a plus; there’s time to compete, to lose then grow and strive again for Great. DeVito, that one needn’t display two-meter-perfection, and always color within the lines.

Untether! Let yourself soar!