Death, Taxes .... and Gravity

Lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairwell I gently moved each body attempting to assess what might be broken, bruised, or dislocated. The tumble down the steps was an accident of my own carelessness. In my haste to get to the gym, I changed clothes in my office and failed to close the zipper on the leg of my warm-up pants. Three rungs down the steps my right foot became entangled in the loose fabric on my left leg. Had there been a witness, the tumble to the bottom and subsequent crash into the wall would have made for great comedy.

I'm always amazed at how quickly the brain can process information. During my brief airborne adventure a cornucopia of peculiar fleeting thoughts dashed about in my head. As would seem obvious, the first thought was - "this going to hurt" - and it did. But there were other thoughts and they were random, "where is my gym bag?", "it's already dark?" , "should I try to jump before I land? ", "what are endorphines?", "can I still ski?".

With only a skinned knee and bruised shoulder, I calmly collected my things and continued down the remaining steps. As I walked, it occurred to me the death and taxes are not the only things of which we can be certain...there's also gravity and I have the bruises to prove it.