Five ways to reduce the risk of falling

(1)

Go outside just as school or camp lets out. When children of all ages are streaming down the Avenue, towing parents or nannies.

A father to his kid:

“Every day it gets closer to Halloween.”

(2)

Stand under the willow tree. Tilt your head back, gaze into its cathedral ceiling. 

Let a passing remark bring you back into your body.

“Willows grow fast, and topple easy.”

(3)

Keep stones in your house. From the shore of the Black Sea, and the shore of Lake Michigan. From Cape Cod: the ocean side, and the bay side.

The stones will keep your house from blowing away, which is not the same thing as reducing your risk of falling, but close enough.

One day you’ll have to move, and when that day comes, you’ll either take the stones with you, or leave them behind. 

You will know what to do, then, and also you will be strong enough to do it.

(4)

In the meantime, give away as many manmade objects as you can.

The fewer you own, the less time you’ll spend cleaning.

“I was a fish broker. I had a warehouse of fish, and a phone.”

As with a piece of writing: you’re done not when you can’t add anything, but when you can’t take anything away.

(5)

Or do. Do fall.

Like when you are standing in the aisle of the plane, waiting for the bathroom, or just remembering how to stand —

and the flight attendant comes up behind you and puts her hand on your back, gently but firmly — 

in a world where no one touches strangers.

“In another life I was a matador, and you were in the path of a charging bull. I came up behind you, like this, touched you, like this, and pushed you out of danger.”

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