The sixth sense: Gravity
Saturday, March 04, 2006
The human body seems to compensate for its own inadequacies or attempt to balance for missing parts. Blind people seem to have an acute sense of smell. Losing an arm means the other arm will grow stronger to make up the difference. That seems natural.
Growing older includes among other things, a lessening of all of the senses it seems. The muscles soften, the organs work slower, weaker. The menu narrows so the sense of taste goes bland. Glasses and hearing aids are often required to boost those senses. The odors that used to be annoying, overwhelming or embarrassing before now seem to have become tolerable or maybe stinks have gone extinct. And dressing in the dark is no longer an option. Is that corduroy or velvet? Green, blue or black?
But in growing older one does seem to develop a sixth sense, maybe to sort of compensate for the slowing of the other five: The sense of gravity tunes up. Our awareness of gravity approaches the acute at about the same speed as the trudging, then galloping years.
Everything gets heavier. Picking up small objects such as a coffee cup cannot be done at arms length anymore. Too much strain on the elbow. So the time spent getting closer to things increases, new methods are learned to get things moved from one table to another; new rationalizations are developed to just leave things where they are. It’s the new sense of gravity teaching us new skills.
Getting the local newspaper from the driveway must be done much like young mothers are taught to pick up youngsters: squat at the knees, keep the back straight. Keeping the back straight seldom gets easier as years go but then bending the spine enough to pick something up from between your feet is impossible. So our knees and back contribute to that sixth sense of gravity by learning to cooperate in order to reach objects on the floor.
Now, since newspapers and other common objects are now much heavier than a few years ago, because of that increased sense of gravity, obviously, getting back up in a standing posture is even more of a challenge. But our bodies develop ways to compensate for gravity. Pushing with one hand on a knee will aid the spine and knees in returning to the erect position. But we would never have thought of that before our sense of gravity began to develop.
The human body seems to compensate for its own inadequacies or attempt to balance for missing parts. Blind people seem to have an acute sense of smell. Losing an arm means the other arm will grow stronger to make up the difference. That seems natural.
Growing older includes among other things, a lessening of all of the senses it seems. The muscles soften, the organs work slower, weaker. The menu narrows so the sense of taste goes bland. Glasses and hearing aids are often required to boost those senses. The odors that used to be annoying, overwhelming or embarrassing before now seem to have become tolerable or maybe stinks have gone extinct. And dressing in the dark is no longer an option. Is that corduroy or velvet? Green, blue or black?
But in growing older one does seem to develop a sixth sense, maybe to sort of compensate for the slowing of the other five: The sense of gravity tunes up. Our awareness of gravity approaches the acute at about the same speed as the trudging, then galloping years.
Everything gets heavier. Picking up small objects such as a coffee cup cannot be done at arms length anymore. Too much strain on the elbow. So the time spent getting closer to things increases, new methods are learned to get things moved from one table to another; new rationalizations are developed to just leave things where they are. It’s the new sense of gravity teaching us new skills.
Getting the local newspaper from the driveway must be done much like young mothers are taught to pick up youngsters: squat at the knees, keep the back straight. Keeping the back straight seldom gets easier as years go but then bending the spine enough to pick something up from between your feet is impossible. So our knees and back contribute to that sixth sense of gravity by learning to cooperate in order to reach objects on the floor.
Now, since newspapers and other common objects are now much heavier than a few years ago, because of that increased sense of gravity, obviously, getting back up in a standing posture is even more of a challenge. But our bodies develop ways to compensate for gravity. Pushing with one hand on a knee will aid the spine and knees in returning to the erect position. But we would never have thought of that before our sense of gravity began to develop.
Labels: Aging, Gravity, sixth sense
posted by anyjazz @ 12:24 PM
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