Tumbling’s not all bad.

Recently, I found much good in it.

At this time of year, I used to walk around with my head down, looking for interludes of uncertainty — those slithery surfaces between me and that day’s goal.

A few years ago, while still confident and moving with my head up, I encountered a slithy tove. I did gyre and gimbal in the wabe. A real Jabberwocky it was. I took a tumble and broke my leg. All mimsy were the borogoves.

I had to wear a “boot.” A plastic contrivance that replaced the plaster cast I wore years ago when I broke my other leg.

That’s when I started walking around with my head down.

But, recently, I’ve found a reason to pick my head up again. I observed tumbling that didn’t cause people to wear a cast.

It was the Allen Park High School cheerleaders. Their tumbling/cheering routine won the 2024 Michigan High School Athletic Association cheerleading championship.

Seeing those cheerleaders in action gave me hope for enhanced stability. They were all the more impressive because the principal of Allen Park High School is my son Jonathan’s best friend — a fellow Alpena High School alumnus — Jason Skiba — a member of a family so long an integral part of our community.

A family that includes Kaitlin Skiba. Kaitlin is the Alpena High School varsity cheerleading coach when she’s not on maternity leave. When she is, she isn’t; Janelle Mott is. Janelle Mott is now.

So, this year, our cheerleaders started with a leadership juggle. It was our high school football team that took a tumble.

But everyone landed on their feet.

How?

When our football team left the field after the final loss in a 0-10 season, many players walked over to the cheerleaders and thanked them — not for their tumbling — they thanked them for their support during challenging times.

Then they walked off the field to play another day.

There it is, the kernel of the truth in it. It’s not tumbling that needs to be avoided. It’s a lack of support. Support can prevent us from falling or falling too hard and it can get us up when we fall too far.

As Kipling said:

“If you can meet triumph and disaster

And treat both those imposters just the same,

Your’s is the earth and everything that’s in it.”

Support helps.

Even cheerleaders need it. They get their support from family, team players, fans, each other, and their coaches.

I spoke with five of our varsity cheerleaders: Alexis Cryer, Kianna Caroveau, Lilian Skowronek, Brooklyn Jore, and Alexandra Hill.

“Why did you become cheerleaders?,” I asked

“I’m introverted and wanted to do something to get out of my comfort zone,” one of the young ladies told me. Others nodded in agreement.

I wish I had challenged myself to that degree when I was their age. Instead, I plotted a course from one comfort zone to another until an uninvited non-comfort zone came along and pulled the support out from under me.

Better to meet those non-comfort zones head-on — on your terms.

Another young lady told me she had been involved with competitive sports but felt a competitiveness within the team. She wanted to be part of an internally non-competitive effort.

All the girls loved their coaches and appreciated the positive environment, one that promotes a feeling of family and shields them, for a time, from the tumbles of adolescent life.

I’ve concluded that cheerleading is an essential business. To be a good cheerleader requires getting out of yourself, melding with others, and cheering in support of those encountering slithy troves on one of life’s competitive fields.

Cheerleaders can transport us through the looking glass. If Humpty Dumpty had received their support, he may have been able to put himself together again.

So here is my New Year’s wish for you, dear reader:

If you find yourself gimbaling in a wabe, may you hear in the distance a rousing cheer — one that carries up and over the mimsy of the borogoves and sets you on your feet again.

Doug Pugh’s “Vignettes” runs monthly. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.