An object in motion tends to stay in motion. An object at rest tends to stay at rest.

We are hurtling through space at 67,000 miles an hour, four times faster than cracks propagate through glass. And that's only as referenced to the sun. We trace an intricate path through the universe, complimentary ellipses locked in a tidal struggle that we don't even acknowledge.

But I think everybody should. At least once.

Wait for a sunny day, preferably with some fluffy clouds blowing by high overhead. Find a nice, wide field with few obstructions around it. Ideally, it has tall grass. Lie down in it. Spread out your arms. Take off your shoes if you feel like it. Now look up.

Above you are tall mountains of water vapor. they tower into the stratosphere miles above you. But listen: gravity is an attractive force. It sucks you in much like a magnet. You do not have a giant force pressing you down - that presumes the force is above you. It isn't.

or is it?

From a physics standpoint, we experience the world upside down. We don't walk with our feet below us gravity pushes down, we walk with our feet above us, with the ground preventing us from being sucked into the center of the earth. And it is only that gravity that keeps us from flying off into the void at 67,000 miles an hour.

Because the void is the norm. The void is prevalent. The void is what will win in the end.

You aren't lying down looking up, you are being sucked back from the void by the greedy greedy earth as miles below you billowing clouds roil and beyond that, the infinite plummet.

You are held up at the very top of the world, forever upside down like a spider, by a force we barely understand. You are kept from spiraling down into the Deep Empty only by the jealous grip of dust assembled so gigantic that it clutches at you with an acceleration of 29 feet per second per second. The force of a pull-up keeps you sucked to the roof of the world and if it didn't, you would fall forever.

For me, at least, experiencing the world "right side up" clarified a lot. It made me understand just how much this planet wanted to keep me here. It made me understand the sheer magnitude of physics so mundane to me that I had to will myself to see it. And it made me recognize that perspective is such a powerful thing that I could give myself vertigo while lying flat in a field of grass.

So long as we're talking about Earth, I mean. My place in society? different matter. But I am held dangling from an infinite precipice 24/7/365 and that relationship isn't going to go away any time soon. Best make the most of it because the alternative is terrifying.