I had to teach this to the kids I worked with this summer while discussing gravity, air resistance, and Newton's laws of motion. We of course talked about dropping things, especially small coins from great heights. And I learned something new: that everything has a terminal velocity. The penny being dropped from the tallest building will reach a max speed.
I kind of don't believe this, but I have talked to several people who I trust know their physics and they all agreed. I must have slept through that day in science.
But then again, as I think about everyday life, Newton's laws and my knowledge of velocity seem to make more and more sense.
I have had to drive in Dallas traffic a lot more than I ever have before, and at peak times. In going to work and coming back from work I have begun to notice certain trends in this traffic. One is that people really don't like to change speed. This includes speeding up or slowing down. I'd say that most people can be completely surrounded by cars, and as long as they are all going a steady speed that is the desired speed of that person, he or she will be happy. People only get mad when they are forced to slow down or speed up.
Newton's fist law is commonly put: an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside, unbalanced force. And once that occurs, the object will be angry.
People don't like to change their velocity. It does require energy to speed up or slow down, and we often meet some sort of resistance. Maybe we all have a natural rhythm, or maybe it is just our expectations of the way things should work. But when this attitude bleeds over into other parts of our lives, it often results in problems. I don't claim to be an expert, but from what I've seen, coasting typically is not a good option in any type of work, for any personal benefit, and especially for any type of relationship (be it friendship, romantic, or religious).
Besides, things are always more exciting when you change velocity. You either get to slow down and see more and take in more. Or you could speed up and experience the thrill and excitement of the moment.
I went to Six Flags yesterday. There are no rides that maintain the same speed the entire time, because that would be boring. A roller coaster is an attraction because it breaks from the velocity of everyday normal living with slow, building, suspenseful moments and fast, crazy, wild moments.
Sure, discipline and ritual are good, and I believe they work wonders in our lives. But so does a willingness to change velocity. Otherwise we become just like angry Dallas drivers, only in all aspects of our lives.
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