The teacher thought it was so amusing to think of an apple floating off the tree, for we all know, even though we can not see it, there is such a thing as gravity, which is the force that actually pulls the apple to the earth. The teacher went on to talk about the speed in which items fall and many of the other things we have learned about gravity ever since Sir Issac Newton pondered the apple. But the boy did not hear any more, for he had one thought that he could not get out of his mind. While Sir Issac Newton kept making him think what caused the apple to fall, he had one thought: gravity won't hurt me.
Gravity won't hurt me. The more he thought about gravity, the more he realized that gravity won't hurt him. Class went on without him, for his thoughts were far away. He started to picture all the things he could do and all the things he should do now that he knew gravity won't hurt him.
Nothing brought a bigger smile to his face. He wondered if there were any other kids out there who knew the truth he now knew. He wasn't sure how to approach the subject. He wasn't sure if they would laugh at him. He wasn't sure if they would understand. He wasn't sure if they could picture the beautiful world he was picturing now that he understood gravity will not hurt him. But he wasn't certain that he had to make his message clear to one and all that there was no longer any need to be afraid to sit under an apple tree because gravity won't hurt me. He decided that no matter what the consequences, he had to face his fears and tell the world the good news that "gravity won't hurt me."
He had to tell his parents the good news he learned in school.
"Gravity won't hurt me," he told his mom while she was making dinner.
"That is nice," she responded, stirring the grilled onions.
"I learned today that Sir Isaac Newton sat under an apple tree and an apple landed on his head, even though he said ouch, it got him to thinking about the apple and how it fell and why it fell, but that wasn't as interesting to me as the realization that I now understand and that is 'gravity won't hurt me.'"
Just then his Dad came home from work.
"Dad," he called out.
"Hi son," his dad responded. "How was school?"
"It was great and I learned something truly great today."
"What is that?"
"Gravity won't hurt me."
"Gravity won't what?"
"Gravity won't hurt me."
"I don't understand what you are trying to say."
"I am telling you that gravity won't hurt me."
"I'll prove it to you".
"Well how about you prove it to me after dinner, I am starved."
After what seemed like an eternity Tim, the excited boy, watched his dad finished his meal and then ran outside. He climbed up onto the dog house and announced, "Gravity won't hurt me!"
He jumped and landed on the ground below. He stood up with the biggest smile on his face and his arms stretched to the sky as if to say, see I can do it.
"Gravity won't hurt me!"
His mother cheered, "Great job son, I am so proud of you that was a great jump!"
"What?" questioned his dad. "Don't encourage him with that kind of thinking. The next thing you know he will be jumping off the roof, yelling gravity won't hurt me!" he said in a scoffing tone. "Son, it is gravity that brought you to the ground. I think that is what the teacher was trying to point out to you in class."
"Dad, don't you see? Gravity won't hurt me. I'm fine."
"Son, all you've proved is that gravity is correct. It will always pull you to the ground, and if you go higher, it will still pull you to the ground. You need to be careful because no matter how many times you keep saying gravity won't hurt you, it is not the gravity that is gong to hurt you. It is the sudden stop at the end that can hurt you."
"Honey, stop being so hard on the boy and give his some credit for showing initiative and being creative. He is exploring the world around him and that is great," Tim's mom said.
"Exploring the world around him?" he questioned, "with that kind of thinking all he is gong to do is get himself hurt."
The two of them went back into the house arguing about what each other should and should not have said. The boy had heard the arguments over and over again. He was so tired of hearing them argue. He just tuned them out as he sat on the top of the dog house realizing he was right. Gravity did not hurt him. Armed with this truth he was determined to share this good news with his friends.
Class seemed to take forever that day and when the final bell rang, he rushed over to his friends and exclaimed that he had learned something truly great after their class about gravity.
They all wondered what new thing he had learned and requested him to tell them about it but he declared that he could not tell them but they needed to see it for themselves so they all rendezvoused at his house and there next to the dog house he declared his great news. "Gravity will not hurt me!"
They were all in a state of confusion. Jessica with the soft brown eyes asked him what he meant by that. Wild William asked, "Were you thinking gravity was going to hit you over the head?" " Of course gravity is not going to hurt you," declared Dean. "What could he possibly mean?" others questioned each other. Without answering any further questions, he climbed onto his dog house and jumped. Landing on his feet and throwing his hands into the air, he declared, "See gravity didn't hurt me."
Laughter broke out all over the backyard. Some began to mock him. Some questioned his sanity. Some declared him to be a nut job and left. Others tried to explain that of course gravity did not hurt him. Gravity was not something you were hit with but rather it was a force that pulls you down. It did not matter what they tried to say. Nothing seemed to change his mind until he was all alone in the backyard with just one little girl, Jessica. She had soft brown eyes staring up at him with a smile on her face she said, "That was wonderful!"
He had a new friend, and from that point on, they were great friends, almost inseparable. They would be seen holding hands and jumping from the dog house together.
Years went by and the two of them were seen jumping off the dog house together and in the park jumping off the park benches, some of the school playground equipment, the edge of the city fountain, and anywhere they felt comfortable jumping from. They got great joy out of this activity.
One day there was a new boy in school, and he noticed they seemed to love to jump off things, so he challenged them to a jump off. They thought that sounded fun so off they all went jumping off whatever the other person jumped off.
They jumped off the usual park benches and play equipment. Finally the new kid said, "This is getting boring. Let's go back to your house and I'll show you something really fun."
When they arrived back at the house, the new kid proceeded to climb to the top of the roof and proceeded to explain that he was going to jump. The girl took one look at the ground below and got woozy. She said she could not jump from there and carefully climbed down.
Then Tom, the new kid jumped and landed on the ground. He looked up and said, "Now it's your turn. Jump!"
With that he jumped, just as he hit the ground he heard snap and he cried out in pain from the agony. He held his throbbing leg as Tom yelled, "Why didn't you roll like I did when you hit the ground?"
Jessica said, "See, I told you you shouldn't jump. We never hurt ourselves when we jumped together."
The new kid said, "Hey, if he is going to learn to be a man, he has got to learn to jump correctly, and I can teach him that."
"You can teach me?" said the injured boy.
"Sure," Tom replied.
"I want to learn how to do what you did."
With glaring eyes, Jessica remarked, "Mark my words, you are just going to get hurt if you continue to jump with him."
"He'll learn to be a man if he stays with me," the new kid declared.
"Well I am not going to continue to jump with you two if you are going to jump this way. What is it going to be, continue to jump with me and not get hurt, or jump with him and continue to get hurt?"
"Bye," said the young, injured boy, and with that Jessica stormed off muttering to herself how she was not going to be with any selfish boys who could hurt her after spending so much time together only to get tossed out like some old shirt. She vowed she was never again going to allow that to happen, and she was never seen jumping with boys again.
Tim, the injured boy went into the house, and his mom took him to the doctor to get him fixed up. The doctor explained the break and the number of weeks he would be in the cast and the need to let the wound heal and the need to protect himself from jumping from high places. The boy didn't hear much about what the doctor said, for he was dreaming about his next jump.
Tim spent a great deal of time with his new friend Tom, learning to roll, and finally he felt he was ready to take the jump. With Tom down below coaching him, he was ready to jump. With a deep breath he jumped, and joy filled his soul as he soared through the air. Snap went his leg as he rolled on the ground. Grabbing his leg, he realized it was his other leg this time giving him pain.
"Man, we have got to work on your technique," Tom said as he helped Tim into the house.
His mom quickly gathered her son up, ignoring her husband's words of "I told you so"and rushed him to the doctor's office. When the Doctor heard the tale of how it happened again, he sarcastically thanked the boy for keeping him employed. The boy ignored all his warnings and left the office, dreaming of his next jump.
Before his leg healed up, his mother received a letter from her insurance carrier explaining how they had come to understand how her son injured his leg and that if it were to happen again that his policy was going to be canceled. His mother was enraged at the attitude of the insurance company. She felt it was so unfair that after all this time that she had been paying into the insurance company that it was not fair for them to threaten canceling her policy. She decided to take action against this injustice and write her governor that he needs to prevent her insurance company from dropping her policy at any whim of the greedy insurance companies.
Her letter arrived at the most inopportune time for her to be heard since the governor was busy with a problem with the farmers in his area. It seems that the farmers were complaining about the loss of water in their area due to some endangered fish in the water canals and the governor was busy with a study to determine how many votes he might loose depending on what stand he took on this endangered fish problem. He instructed a staff writer to explain that he would look into this insurance problem and then promptly forgot all about the issue.
Prompted by the encouragement of his friend the boy was back on the roof of his house and this time holding hands with his friend assured that jumping together would prove that gravity would not hurt him. The jump was exhilarating and time seemed to stand still as he felt the wind in his hair and the sun at his back and then there was a double crack sound as both legs rang out with a familiar sound.
It was a long wait in the Doctor's office but it was clear that both legs needed to be set and possibly pins and surgery. It was not a pretty picture that the Doctor was looking at through the x-rays but he casted the boy's legs and sent off information to some specialist to determine if further work was needed.
Due to the new mandatory reporting system the insurance company learned of the broken legs and quickly fired off a notice of cancellation. Upon receiving the notice of cancellation, the mother wrote a letter to the governor and a letter of request for insurance with several a new insurance carriers. The insurance carriers were unwilling to insure her son with his preexisting condition. This only created fuel for the fire and his mother went into action against the unfairness of preexisting conditions. Meanwhile the Governor did actually read her letter and talked to his advisers on a course of action. It seems the Governor was convinced that this boy must be mentally unstable since it seems that he continued to jump off his roof and caused damage to himself all the while claiming gravity will not hurt him. Before the Governor could respond to her letter, one of the Governors advisers came to him with some little known information. It seems that there was a study done and there were other people in the Governors voting block who believed that gravity will not hurt them. The adviser cautioned the Governor to not be too hasty in his decision about this boy since the numbers just might be enough to insure his reelection in the upcoming elections.
The boys Mom was not happy with the Governors lack of responses and so she decided to start an Intolerance campaign against "gravity won't hurt me" people and insurance companies intimating that the Governor is siding with big business on this very important issue. This campaign caught the attention of a certain medical company who quickly went to the Governor with a solution to the Governor's problem of whether to side with the intolerance gravity won't hurt me crowd or be seen supporting big business over the needs of people.
Mr. Governor I think we have a solution to your problem the phone call went and the next thing you know the Governor was shaking hands with the medical company and a press conference was called. The governor announced that a new deal has been struck with Ace medical company that has come up with a solution to the problem that this young man has with his broken legs. The company is going to be funded by the state medical fund to sleeve this young man's legs with a new titan coating that will guarantee his right to believe that gravity won't hurt him and for those who want this same procedure will be available to all people through their insurance companies because of a new law that the Governor is signing into law that requires insurance companies to cover on all medical policies.
The announcement brought mixed reactions. Everything from people believing the Governor was insane to he was a hero for all the "gravity won't hurt me" crowd. But the happiest person was the boy's mom because in the new law was the requirement that the insurance companies were no longer allowed to not insure someone with a preexisting condition. While this had actually no affect on her son since the Ace medical company was taking care of all her son's medical expenses in order to be the company that fitted him and any other "gravity won't hurt us" crowd in his state with this new titanium sleeve over his bones, but she felt that it was a great victory for the injustice she saw and would never happen again to another family like it happened to her family.
The boy was never more happy with his new titanium legs and was seen jumping with is friend often from the rooftop of his parent's home until one day the young boy decided that for him to prove he had become a young man who in fact knew that gravity could never hurt him decided to jump from the tallest building in the city. His friend of many years advised against it. But he was sure it was the right thing to do. He called a press conference and announced his intention to jump from the tallest building in the city. The next day he jumped from the tallest building and his euphoria was incredible. He felt the wind in his hair, he felt the sun on his face, he soared next to the birds in the sky and he was at one with the universe as he enjoyed his flight.
The Doctor who had taken care of this boy from his childhood was on hand and pronounced the boy dead at the sight. He had heard that the boy was going to jump and he figured he needed to be there for the family. His parents heard the announcement and you could hear them still blaming each other for how all this could have happened. The words of comfort from the Doctor never seemed to be even heard by them. The Ace medical company was on the scene in order to prove that there titanium sleeves did not fail and the legs were not broken. They were anxious to hear the report. The Governor was the saddest of all the people. He was not able to determine if the medical sleeves not breaking would be a good things or a bad things in the election poles. He immediately requested a pole to be taken.
The death of the boy caught the attention of the soft landing company who immediately called the Governor. They had a solution to the problem of the Governor admitting that the titanium sleeves failed in preventing gravity from hurting the boy. A press conference was announced and the Governor was delightfully announcing a new alliance with the soft landing company. The autopsy revealed that gravity did not hurt the boy that jumped but rather it was the hard surface below that actually caused the complications and his death.So the announcement came that from now on all buildings in the city will be retrofitted with soft landing sites on all four sides of every building in the city for the "gravity won't hurt me" group. They will be able to jump at any time they would like beginning next summer. So a memorial to the young man was set up at the bottom of the building in remembrance of the boy who started the "gravity won't hurt me" moment that has made so many people happy to be able to continue with their "gravity won't hurt me" belief.
