Gravity (Perquimans Weekly 5/28/2020)

I’ve thought a lot about gravity lately. It’s not something usually on my mind, but it certainly holds me down a lot. I branched out of my usual genre of books to read one by Mary Roach. She is a pretty humorous science writer and I like her style. In her book, “Packing For Mars,” there’s much discussion on gravity as force, friend, and foe. I’m in my forties, so I’m starting to understand the real gravity of aging in ways I didn’t before. I consider it a foe, but that’s not what she means in the book. 

For Star Wars fans, I think of gravity as The Force that holds the universe together.  Gravity isn’t constant, even on Earth. It changes in different areas based on the density of the rock. This is good news if you put your bathroom scale somewhere it isn’t so dense, but good luck finding that. Mathematically speaking, you can calculate the force of gravity on an object by googling that equation yourself. I can’t be expected to do everything for you. I’m a writer. 

I was very happy to discover that weight isn’t really important since it changes based on your location. For example, I weigh more at the doctors office for some unknown reason. Probably dense earth and more gravity. A more accurate view may be to measure mass, but I’ll pass currently, in keeping with this quarantine situation and everything.

On the International Space Station, it appears to be zero gravity, but that’s not true. It’s only 10% less gravity because the orbit is pretty low to Earth. You can see it at night with the naked eye sometimes. We’ve watched it a few times with our kids. That close to earth, you don’t really float as much as fall continuously. I don’t know about you, but that makes me queasy to consider. It’s a constant fall, around and around the planet. Pass the Dramamine. 

John Mayer sings “Gravity is working against me” and it’s true for aging, but it’s working for us even more. It keeps our planets aligned, gives us tides, keeps us grounded, literally, in every way. It’s such a seemingly constant thing in our lives that we don’t worry when we sit in a chair. We step expecting to stay on the floor. We have a thoughtless faith in something we can’t see at all. It’s expected. 

I wish my faith in God was that automatic. Life is uncertain  and the gravitas of that statement can make us uncomfortable when we ponder it deeply. I don’t envy the decision makers of today, lives and livelihoods in the balance. Every move criticized from one side or the other. It’s so easy to panic, but like Martin Lloyd Jones said, “Faith is the refusal to panic.” 

We probably have all wondered if we’re in a free fall, around and around, but we aren’t. We’re held secure by a force we can’t see, and God made gravity.