The Physical Challenges

Gravity, Inertia, Friction, Radiation, and Oxidation...

These are the physical challenges of all living things, and the great challenges of my life.  Just getting out of bed in the morning, I have to fight gravity.  Walking up hill to the mail box, I have to fight gravity.  Lifting each and every object, I fight against the omnipresent force of gravity.

And beginning any movement, any action, any task, I have to overcome inertia.  It much easier to remain a body at rest than to apply the force needed to begin, to change.  Inertia is a subtle but constant state to consider as I begin to do anything.

And once begun, I have to keep up certain level of force just to over come the effects of friction.  There is a constant drag on me.  I can't just coast!  And friction is wearing me and all my tools and machines down.  Friction keeps me busy repairing things.

Less visible, the chemical process of oxidation, rusting, corrupts things without out even using them.  We need oxygen to live, but it turns out that the very element we rely on also is poisonous to us at the same time!  We can't escape it, we just have to keep working to hold back oxidation's effects... keep polishing the silverware.

And radiation!  We are being irradiated by cosmic rays... the universe is hostile to us; we are being irradiated by the sun... it gives us light and life and then can take it away; and we are being irradiated by the earth itself... how can our Mother Earth leak radon gas into our homes?

So how do I face these challenges?  I get up.  I get moving.  I keep going.  I open the windows and breathe deeply and defiantly.  And, I go outside with a hat on... usually.  Life is all about overcoming these challenges as long as I can.