Gravity

Water, water everywhere! That’s the gist of my unexpected late evening phone call. I love hearing from my kids but the serious tone of this call immediately raises my parental concern. My oldest son and his family live in a quaint older Pittsburgh neighborhood. Like the rest of the nation, they’ve endured some strange weather. In their case even though their home is perched high on a hillside, severe storms have flooded their home. My son’s call told of a water-filled basement and, horror of horrors, an accompanying simultaneous electrical outage. Their sump pump couldn’t be powered to do its designed job. In fact, for several exhausting hours he’s been manning a one man bucket brigade and slowly losing the battle.
A friend who was with me suggested a small generator but at this time of night, the chances of finding one are slim. Finally, I thought of a truly old fashioned solution. A water filled fifty foot garden hose was anchored in the flooded basement. The other end was snaked up eight feet through an exterior window and unrolled down the hillside below my son’s home. Voila! When the water in the hose was released, the resulting suction started the process of slowly draining the watery basement. The ageless power of gravity—one of nature’s greatest forces—was harnessed and loosed once again as a siphon. Soon I got a call that this “jerry-rigged” system was slowly but surely doing its magic.
As I sit reflecting, I am amazed how some of the divine laws of nature have been “put on the back shelf.” Simple fixes often elude us, largely I suspect, because we have engineered so many solutions to invalidate those forces or at least artificially make them unnecessary. Although perhaps it was only out of necessity, for centuries folks recognized and respected these awesome natural forces. Our need for simple things like pulleys, levers, wind and water power, and siphons still exist; we’ve just simply outgrown or forgotten them in our minds.
I think of the power and laws of nature. My thoughts range from the simple windmills on the quaint Amish farms to the awesome power stored behind the massive 700 foot high Hoover Dam powering much of the Southwest. I watch the ten-year-old and four-year-old successfully seesawing together because of a simple equalizing leverage. The Beast, a 7400 foot long wooden coaster at King’s Island in Cincinnati, attains speeds of 70 miles an hour utilizing the mighty power of gravity. In fact, there is enough force to power an inverted loop and both 135 and 140 foot terrifying drops. I think of all the hundreds of awesome fountains that have dazzled Rome’s visitors for centuries—all powered by gravity. Perhaps the most awesome display of gravity is the seldom thought of fact that we all don’t fall off the earth (no matter which side we’re on) as it spins through space.
The list could go on and on. Perhaps you’d like to reflect and add some personal thoughts to the list. The often taken for granted powers of this universe and the Power behind them are inescapable and awesome. I just need to take more time to notice and appreciate. It is amazing how unwelcome “natural calamities” can start the process of appreciating the basics I take for granted (again).