Remember that most of these posts are going to be based on an English textbook, FieldWorking third edition. This might make some of the posts strange or choppy but I'll do my best to make up for that.
Juggling is a strange group because it is both very exclusive and very open at the same time. It is exclusive in the sense that an outsider looking in is going to feel very aware of their outsider status. This is because of the language and conventions that juggling is full of. For example, things you juggle are called "props", "two-count" is a type of passing (along with almost any other number if you really wanted to), and a "flash" is when you throw up every prop you're juggling and catch it once. Between not knowing what jugglers are talking about, and seeing people casually doing things that they don't really think they would ever be able to do themselves, it can be difficult to approach a group of jugglers.
At the same time jugglers are one of the most open groups I've ever found. I usually make a comparison to magicians to illustrate this.
Magicians will be careful about telling people how they do things because the secret behind what they do is how they do it. If everyone knows the secret then it will not be nearly as impressive. At the same time a juggler is willing to show anyone exactly what they are doing. If you know how they do a trick you must still put in the same amount of time to be able to perform that trick. The effort decides what you can do, not any insider knowledge. When you combine this with the fact that most juggling is fun to do with multiple people and you quickly see why jugglers want to encourage others to learn as well. When was the last time you saw a magician offer to do a workshop after their show and tell you how all the tricks were done? Jugglers do that all the time, often even for free.
Because of all of this jugglers become both a welcoming, and difficult, group to approach.
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