Photo by Bill Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joined the keeper and Phyllis and the rest of the clan in cheering on the newest member—Auggie, as he mastered the simple act of walking and quickly moved on to running, with occasional falls that were of no more consequence than a hiccup.
“Those little upsets is gravity talking to you, Auggie, and your ancient great-grandfather would pass on a few words for you to consider about this force that is as powerful as your mom’s embrace and will be with you for the rest of your life.
“Mostly you will ignore gravity and adjust all your activities to include it since it never lets up. You will use it for skiing and sky diving and other fun and foolish things, and you will totally take it for granted as you run and walk through the years.
“Then after a long, long time, good old faithful gravity will gradually turn on you and start pulling you down toward the ground though you have no plans to get any closer to it than the height of a comfortable recliner.
“As for the simple act of walking, gravity will threaten to trip you up and break your bones unless you give your fading sense of balance and shrinking leg strength some help in the form of a walking stick or a wheeled walker.
“Nobody expects you to acknowledge any of this downer gravity stuff for a hundred years or so, Auggie, but if you happen to see your old great grandfather drop his pen pick it up for him, because gravity is not kind when he bends over and gets that close to the floor.”
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