Bodies in Rest and Motion

(text in italics ganked from The Physics Classroom)

Newton's first law of motion:
"An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

It dawned on me that I have been in the Lou for about ten months. Sitting on my ass. Living in my head.

"Inertia = the resistance an object has to a change in its state of motion."

Ten months. Inertia is an apt description for this time. It may be that I have been in motion - moving with a constant speed in one direction but it is more likely that I have been sitting very still.

"A force is a push or pull upon an object resulting from the object's interaction with another object. Whenever there is an interaction between two objects, there is a force upon each of the objects. When the interaction ceases, the two objects no longer experience the force. Forces only exist as a result of an interaction."

For ten months I mostly insulated myself from interaction. From contact. From the push and pull of others.

"Objects at equilibrium (the condition in which all forces balance) will not accelerate."

Forces in me and applied to me. Balanced. No acceleration. No change in direction. I hovered.

"The net force is the vector sum of all the forces which act upon an object. That is to say, the net force is the sum of all the forces, taking into account the fact that a force is a vector and two forces of equal magnitude and opposite direction will cancel each other out."

A struggle inside between conflicting desires and drives. Opposing ambitions cancelling each other out.
To a net force of zero.

Is it that I don't want anything or that I want too many things?

"All objects resist changes in their state of motion. All objects have this tendency - they have inertia. But do some objects have more of a tendency to resist changes than others? Absolutely yes! The tendency of an object to resist changes in its state of motion is dependent upon mass ... The more mass which an object has, the more inertia it has - the more tendency it has to resist changes in its state of motion."

Within the boundaries of my skin, deep in my being, I am massive like a black hole, a gravity well. All that dark matter collected in my pupils and the ends of my hair. To know that resistance to change is a tendency of all objects is somewhat of a comfort to me. I am not alone.

"For simplicity sake, all forces (interactions) between objects can be placed into two broad categories: contact forces,
and
forces resulting from action-at-a-distance"

Ten months of sitting still and then.

I bought a plane ticket to go visit G and RB before my favorite women moved away from the New York area.
I emailed EH and asked if I could join the Mystech circus this summer.

And then I got an email inviting me to interview for an internship.
I did.
I got it.

So I am writing to you today from Brooklyn, NY where I will be for six months. It is muggy as muggy can be and I am a bit freaked out to be here. I am here as a reaction to an action-at-a-distance. And at least for the next six months I am in motion in a new direction. Doing something intern-y.

I am a little sad to leave my cloistered static life behind. A lot of the time it sucked. I berated myself and felt inconsolably lonesome and completely lost. But it was good too. Well, maybe it wasn't so good. But it was my life and it was familiar.

For the summer I had envisioned myself campaigning and volunteering (perhaps touring) and driving up to CU frequently to see My Guy and the good people of the 705. Ah, as the Yiddish saying goes: "Man plans and God laughs"