Just Start
January 14, 2020

     Starting is the hardest part.  Of course it is.  That is the very nature of things.

     The first law of classical Newtonian physics is the law of inertia: unless acted upon by some force, a body at rest will stay at rest, and a body in motion will stay in motion, continuing in a straight line at an unchanging speed.  Newton himself described inertia as the "innate force of matter . . . to preserve its present state."  It is literally resistance to change.

     So you see what we're up against.  To start is to depart from the status quo – whether that status quo is rest or motion.  And to start requires some other force, sufficient to overcome the "innate force of matter . . . to preserve its present state."  

     What forces can we muster or otherwise avail ourselves of, if we wish to resist inertial resistance – that is, if we wish to make a new start?  There is the force of gravity.  That one seems dubious, albeit unavoidable for we earthlings, so perhaps we can make use of it. There is the force of will and the force of habit, the force of desire and the force of fear.  There is collective force,  brute force, the force of hope, bodily force.  

     There is the force that water exerts as it runs over rock, cleaving over time that which seems utterly solid.

     May the force be with you.