Gravity

Today’s topic is about something we’re all well acquainted with, though it took a falling apple to point it out to Sir Issac Newton. Yup, gravity, the constant enemy to those who like to stand up.

Cupcake lost a fight with gravity today, and it’s the third fight she’s lost in the last week if I’m not mistaken, and I lost one too, not too long ago. I’ve got a doctor’s excuse and x-rays to prove it.

I don’t have any broken ribs, but something’s wrong. I’ve got pain and this and that and I don’t feel like bitching about it right now. Me and Cupcake have both lost our battles with gravity recently, and that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say about gravity.

Now, I need to find something else to talk about.

Gravity is boring.

So, I’ll talk about role-playing instead. I don’t mean playing Dungeons and Dragons or any rpg video game (and not adult centric role playing) I mean just sitting down with a few friends, a pen and a piece of paper and pretending to be someone else for a while.

Writing is one way of doing it. Acting is another. Then you have the games, and all these things focus on a sort of transformation. Somewhere along those lines you stop being you, all your worries fade away. For a little while, at least, you don’t have to worry about where the rent money’s coming from or about what’s happening to the world at large. All that matters is that character and what’s going to happen next.

Escapism is the word for it, and I think it’s a word that bears repeating. We can escape from our lives and our responsibilities for just a tiny fraction of time. It really might be what keeps most of us sane.

I know I work out a lot of my problems when my pencil connects with the page. I can see all of it flowing out of me, through me, and transforming. Those problems and fears and hopes and dreams, all of them become the essence of whatever character I’m writing about. Whether it be about a gnome and a necromancer or a half-vampire and an army of the undead, they are the same because they are me, and they’re different because they’re my window into another world.

That might be why I like writing so much. I enjoy escaping, living these other lives like I’m Batman or some shit like that. And, I write because I want to share that joy with other people. I want my readers to be free from their worries, even if it’s just for one cigarette smoke filled night. I want them to be free and feel the joy and triumph, pain and sorrow of another. I want them to be free, and I want them to know that life is worth living because of those little moments of happiness, of freedom.

And, that’s enough preaching out of me. Later kids.

Ryan

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