Upside down

HWMNBMOTI and I were both experiencing some back pain this weekend and got to talking about inversion beds and my visceral response was this big fear of a headache. You see... I can't really be upside down anymore.

But this is a huge change from an earlier time in my life. I spent my entire childhood upside down. I was a cartwheel, monkey bars girl. I spent hours every day cartwheeling or walking on my hands. I loved rides, especially ones that flipped me over.

Then... and I identify the timing as my first pregnancy, suddenly several of the things that USED to really thrill me... speed, heights, spinning... no longer worked for me. There was this strange fear and really negative physical response to all these things I used to LOVE.

I think what happens is a function of biology, actually. I think when we become responsible for another human being, our physical response to risk-taking gets more negative.

It got me thinking about perspective in writing. It made me think about the challenges to writing a point of view from a different age and what the markers are that would change how we see things. I think we always need to be cognizant of events that might change responses to keep them realistic.

So that is it today... my very brief thought on how how we feel about things changes as we get older. At seventeen I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Would I do that now? NO WAY. Part of it is the reality of aged bones and poorer physical condition, but much more of it is that fading sense of immortality.