Not long ago, a friend of mine was caring for an elderly relative who was receiving Christian Science treatment. This relative had shown great progress toward the full healing of a health issue. One day my friend e-mailed me to say that his relative seemed to be struggling with a cough or throat irritation of some kind, but there was “no need to entertain this sideshow.”
That got me thinking about sideshows. When I went to the circus as a child, and later with my own children, there were usually sideshows one passed on the way to the Big Top. They often displayed people or animals considered to have unnatural physical characteristics, and, therefore, they were viewed as curiosities. Sideshows were a distraction, tempting one to stop and be impressed by these so-called attractions on the way to the Big Top.
The Oxford dictionary defines sideshow as “a small show or stall at an exhibition, fair, or circus; a minor or diverting incident or issue, especially one which distracts attention from something more important.”
