Gravity, Verticality and Mary Poppins

Structures

Merriam-Webster defines structure as “the way in which parts are arranged or put together to form a whole.”

The Leaning Tower of Pisa and Mary Poppins are both structures. But are they formed in the same way?

Many distinctions can be made between inanimate and living structures, movement being the most obvious. Yet, for more than three hundred years (since the fall of Newton’s apocryphal apple) we’ve assumed that balanced structure is only achieved by lining things up. Animate or inanimate, we stack one thing above another so the weight of the things above presses down on the things below. Compression between the parts keeps them vertical and gravity does the work. When inanimate structures like that tower are meant to last forever, mortar bonds the building materials should their alignment with gravity falter. In living two-legged creatures like ourselves, the mortar is soft tissue (fascia) and muscle energy. People work hard at staying upright.

Grown-ups’ bodies seem less and less balanced the older they become.  Like the tower, aging humans begin to crumble. This happens when the fascial “mortar” becomes dehydrated, adhesive or brittle after years of use. Assaults on uprightness (physical, emotional, social) shorten humans’ statures, and although they may have added girth, their volumes appear smaller. Balance falters and movement becomes halting and heavy. 

Being upright seems less challenging for children. Happy, healthy kids fill out their bodies’ volumes. They are big in their bodies, big in their gestures and self-expression. Because children’s nervous systems are immature, their movement is not subtle or sophisticated, but it is expansive and light.  They tumble, spin, leap and dart, not without accidents and tears, yet a mysterious buoyancy usually sets them back on their feet.

We know that fascia stores kinetic energy, so fascia must be the source of that buoyancy.  But can that be all there is to it—that children’s mortar is juicier? 

Are we missing something? 

Kids and grown-ups’ bodies are composed of the same stuff—soft tissue and bone.  How do soft tissue and bone come to be orchestrated in such dissimilar ways?

 Lightness of Being

Mary Poppins—more buoyant than any child— ascends into the sky when the time is right. She simply grasps her umbrella—she doesn’t have to grip it for dear life. “Spit-spot, “she says to us. “Don’t just stand there.”

Can we—non-storybook persons—be anywhere near as light?

What about dinosaurs?

Very few tail-drag marks have been found at archeological sites, so how on earth did those creatures keep their gigantic tails aloft?  What can account for strength of that magnitude?

Can structures be supported by means other than vertical accord with gravity?

Is gravitation the only basis of support for earthly things? 

To be continued….  

Thank you for reading, and for sharing.

 2025 Mary Bond