Balance is a verb.

As kids, we knew that balance was active. Balance this broomstick on your hand. Walk on the balance beam. Balance a bike without training wheels. My personal favorite was to stand on top of the playground seesaw, with a foot on each side of the fulcrum, and work to keep both seats in the air.

It must have been an adult who decided that balance was a static equilibrium, a sort of negotiated settlement among the competing forces. A kid would know right away that putting cinderblocks under each seat of the seesaw is not balance; it simply sucks the life out of the playground.

Adults seek to establish static equilibria in politics, relationships, business, personal fitness, and finances, but this approach only removes vibrancy and vitality without achieving true balance. Kids know intuitively what adults seem to forget: movement is life.