A delicate balance

When you need to get the job done, you best assemble the best team possible. As pictured here, if your aim is to dazzle, to induce an audience into a state of awe and reverence, then you need the top people for the job. What would happen if even one position was left wanting? What if you for one moment dropped your stringent standards of excellence and compromised on, say, the far left flank?

"The team is strong enough, what does it matter whether Carl can't lift his arm to the requisite 45 degrees?" you'll ask yourself, "Especially when one considers the virtuosic performance on display by Walter, whose arm is as straight as a prairie horizon, aimed to the heavens like Apollo's arrow." While it seems convenient to fill holes with cheap putty, with such compromise you can bet astounding feats of balance and grace would be impossible.

The New York Times is currently running an Annie Leibovitz-style portrait gallery of President Obama's staff. These are the people who will be leading the western world into a new era of all things good. But let's not kid our selves, Obama's team is just as likely to burrow down into the moist and fertile soil of anonymity as the previous president's "people" did. Whether we come to know their contributions or not, let's hope they are able to find balance on that precarious motorcycle otherwise known as the United States government. And don't forget your helmets!