omgpotatochips

[	Tags	|	writing	]
[	mood	|	chipper	]

                I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they’d like to jump off a building but do nothing but fall. They’d just fly, traveling further and further but never getting closer to the ground. Just fall without falling. It’s impossible, of course, but it’s not a stupid dream.

                When I was younger, maybe I would have agreed with them; an infinite parachute would be pretty damn nice, I’d say, and suck off a cigarette before rambling on about how over-rated gravity was.

                At the time, intergalactic travel was becoming more main stream. Everyone was talking about space, anti-gravity, aliens. No real reason to look back on it now, of course—I still smoke and I still hate gravity. It just seems stupid to do those things at sixteen years.

                I won’t tell you my age now, but it has been a while. Cigarettes are mainly illegalized, gasoline engines are on the edge of being obsolete; we have to go green and all that bullshit. It’s not working, ‘cause Earth is still a hellhole. The blue planet (now mostly grey when you look at it from up here) is barely livable compared to yesterday’s standards.

                Why is that?

                It’s because gravity makes us so goddamn dependant.

                If you fall, you’ll land. You’ll hurt yourself, maybe even fucking die, but you’ll land. Just like those trust exercises in high school: you can fall back, I’ll catch you. Trust me, I’ll catch you. You won’t hit the ground because you’ll lean into my arms.

                That’s what gravity is. It’s trust, reassurance, knowing that you won’t lose yourself. If you jump, you won’t float up and get chopped into little pieces by an aeroplane’s propellers.  There’s a force that brings you back down, and it makes us stupid.

                Not to say that living without it is any better, because I’d rather be stupid than in danger. You’re on your own up here, and falling doesn’t happen. No more skinned knees unless you’re a goddamn klutz, ‘cause you’re not gonna trip and fall. You’re gonna trip and fucking trip forever.

                Hell, that’s what it feels like without gravity.

                There’s that little moment right as you slip, backwards or off your bike or whatever, where your heart stops and your body tells you that you’re going to get injured. You get an adrenaline rush. Time moves too fast to stop it from happening, and you fall, and …

                That’s exactly what it’s like without gravity. You don’t hit the ground, though, you just constantly feel dizzy like you’re gonna die. When there’s nothing beneath your feet, your body registers it as falling or some shit. Your nerves get in the way at first, but the adrenaline goes away after time and you kinda start to enjoy the feeling.

                Once you get used to it, that’s it. It starts to feel like super-pressurized swimming or riding an imaginary boat. Your muscles relax completely, get all limp like a ragdoll in a membrane. Get ready to learn about bladder control all over again.

                I’d give you more details and tell you what feces looks like in zero gravity, soldier, but I would rather you learn by yourself. You’ll find out that it’s nice to live in a place where you’re constantly reminded of how disgusting the human body is.

                Well, space ain’t for the weak of stomach, anyway. Don’t bother coming up here unless you’re brave enough to jump off a building.