Turns out that, even at my age, practicing how to safely fall is actually (somewhat) helpful. Bottom line: Land on your big soft places, and NOT on your hands, head or knees if feasible.
We took a sword-play class, (17th century sword fighting). One of the things they taught us, was how to fall without damaging yourself. Fast forward; Turning a tricky corner, riding my bike, with a car coming behind me, curb grabbed my front tire. Jesse’s voice in my head “Tuck and roll and go with the punches!!!”. I did, I rolled onto the grass and landed on my back with nary a problem. The driver of the car stopped to help and couldn’t get over how I’d managed to “roll like an acrobat” and not get hurt. BTW: I was 50 years old when I pulled that rabbit out of the hat.
De-icing the walkways at work. Co worker walked out of the building off the walkway, fell. He slid down the hill, hit me. I fell onto the ice, hitting face first. Wearing safety glasses with side shields, the shield cut into my eyebrow.Bleeding like crazy security had the task to take me to the local hospital, where I waited for 5 hours due to numerous broken ankles and arms from folks falling on the ice. 5 1/2 hours and 6 stitches later I made it back to work just in time to go home.
The day after I had my knee-replacement operation, a physical therapist came by to help me get used to walking again. She slapped a heavy canvas belt around my midriff and got a firm grip on it so she could keep me upright if I started to fall. I was a foot taller and easily outweighed her 2-to-1, so I just laffed and told her that her best move would be to get out of my way. (Spoiler: Everything went fine.)
Charles Perrow, a giant of sociology who specialized in the failure of complex, tightly coupled systems — disasters, in other words — said, “It is normal for us to die, but we only do it once.” Author Laurence Gonzales added, “which is too bad, for it might be the ultimate learning experience.”
One of the things we might learn is whether or not our lives really do flash before our eyes. My own guess is that we don’t get a replay so much as a last-second realization that we were really only here a moment in the first place, I suppose a variation on the theory about time being a device to keep everything from happening at once. But that’s just a guess. And if you’ve ever been in the right kind of accident, the kind where the tightly coupled system has come undone and all that’s left is to wait for the consequences to play out, you’ve likely noticed some kind of profound slowdown of time, quite likely concurrent with a curious detachment.
I don’t know what the criteria are. I’ve been in plenty of accidents, many of them similar enough to evoke unflattering analyses of my learning curve, and even the near-identical ones play out differently. I’ve slipped and taken forever to fall, watching myself go and parsing out which parts are going to hit first and hurt longest and how much. I’ve fallen the same distance and not known I was falling until I was on the ground. (Alcohol was not involved in either extreme.) I just don’t know the specifics. But I do own up to an occasional suspicion that in E=mc squared, E really stands for “elastic.”
Incidentally, Charles Perrow died just this past November, age 94. As far as we know, that’s the only time.
Though with improved medical resuscitation some people who have died have come back from death. That window of revivification is wider now than it was just 50 years ago. Maybe we can make it even wider and longer one day. Though even with a longer life span the final death will come. One day usually too soon.
Riding my bicycle next to the curb; caught my wheel on the corner of an askew paving slab; bike dropped out from under me; I remember having time to think along the lines of “This is interesting, I’m still in riding position with no bike. It’s not going to stay entertaining for long, though.” And it didn’t. A bicycle mechanic friend told me later he “took (the bike) apart and went looking for a piece that wasn’t bent”.
RAGs over 4 years ago
Long enough to know what is going to happen, but too short to do anything about it.
rekam Premium Member over 4 years ago
Isn’t the saying The bigger they are, the harder they fall?
Concretionist over 4 years ago
Turns out that, even at my age, practicing how to safely fall is actually (somewhat) helpful. Bottom line: Land on your big soft places, and NOT on your hands, head or knees if feasible.
whahoppened over 4 years ago
I was rather surprised how attendants at a senior citizens home have been taught how to help a person to fall safely!
Sanspareil over 4 years ago
His comments have certain timeless gravity to them!
Old Girl over 4 years ago
Relative to what?
LadyPeterW over 4 years ago
We took a sword-play class, (17th century sword fighting). One of the things they taught us, was how to fall without damaging yourself. Fast forward; Turning a tricky corner, riding my bike, with a car coming behind me, curb grabbed my front tire. Jesse’s voice in my head “Tuck and roll and go with the punches!!!”. I did, I rolled onto the grass and landed on my back with nary a problem. The driver of the car stopped to help and couldn’t get over how I’d managed to “roll like an acrobat” and not get hurt. BTW: I was 50 years old when I pulled that rabbit out of the hat.
asrialfeeple over 4 years ago
You got to absorb and redirect the impact.
MS72 over 4 years ago
I’ll bet Einstein does not know this: https://www.nationalbagelday.com/
cervelo over 4 years ago
Mallett is on to the physics topics these days. Yesterday a little thermodynamics, today, general relativity!
TMMILLER Premium Member over 4 years ago
De-icing the walkways at work. Co worker walked out of the building off the walkway, fell. He slid down the hill, hit me. I fell onto the ice, hitting face first. Wearing safety glasses with side shields, the shield cut into my eyebrow.Bleeding like crazy security had the task to take me to the local hospital, where I waited for 5 hours due to numerous broken ankles and arms from folks falling on the ice. 5 1/2 hours and 6 stitches later I made it back to work just in time to go home.
Richard S Russell Premium Member over 4 years ago
The day after I had my knee-replacement operation, a physical therapist came by to help me get used to walking again. She slapped a heavy canvas belt around my midriff and got a firm grip on it so she could keep me upright if I started to fall. I was a foot taller and easily outweighed her 2-to-1, so I just laffed and told her that her best move would be to get out of my way. (Spoiler: Everything went fine.)
COL Crash over 4 years ago
That’s a valid observation. I’ve noticed myself how Time passes very slowly when I’m in freefall.
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 4 years ago
Blog Post
Frazz14 hrs ·
Charles Perrow, a giant of sociology who specialized in the failure of complex, tightly coupled systems — disasters, in other words — said, “It is normal for us to die, but we only do it once.” Author Laurence Gonzales added, “which is too bad, for it might be the ultimate learning experience.”
One of the things we might learn is whether or not our lives really do flash before our eyes. My own guess is that we don’t get a replay so much as a last-second realization that we were really only here a moment in the first place, I suppose a variation on the theory about time being a device to keep everything from happening at once. But that’s just a guess. And if you’ve ever been in the right kind of accident, the kind where the tightly coupled system has come undone and all that’s left is to wait for the consequences to play out, you’ve likely noticed some kind of profound slowdown of time, quite likely concurrent with a curious detachment.
I don’t know what the criteria are. I’ve been in plenty of accidents, many of them similar enough to evoke unflattering analyses of my learning curve, and even the near-identical ones play out differently. I’ve slipped and taken forever to fall, watching myself go and parsing out which parts are going to hit first and hurt longest and how much. I’ve fallen the same distance and not known I was falling until I was on the ground. (Alcohol was not involved in either extreme.) I just don’t know the specifics. But I do own up to an occasional suspicion that in E=mc squared, E really stands for “elastic.”
Incidentally, Charles Perrow died just this past November, age 94. As far as we know, that’s the only time.
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 4 years ago
Though with improved medical resuscitation some people who have died have come back from death. That window of revivification is wider now than it was just 50 years ago. Maybe we can make it even wider and longer one day. Though even with a longer life span the final death will come. One day usually too soon.
childe_of_pan over 4 years ago
Riding my bicycle next to the curb; caught my wheel on the corner of an askew paving slab; bike dropped out from under me; I remember having time to think along the lines of “This is interesting, I’m still in riding position with no bike. It’s not going to stay entertaining for long, though.” And it didn’t. A bicycle mechanic friend told me later he “took (the bike) apart and went looking for a piece that wasn’t bent”.