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I genuinely understand how the Baudelaires felt when Count Olaf committed all his crimes in poorly concealed costumes and claimed innocence while everyone around them just accepted it.

This is a post about US politics.

#brought to you by writers block #and panic #and depression #but really #ASOUE

(tw in tags)

I've always found the phrase Rock Bottom to be a bit redundant. I mean, the idea that you'll never be any worse than this isn't something you can know in the moment, is it? A useless phrase, used only in metaphor by tired workmen and unedited drafts. The correct term would surely be terminal velocity, would it not?

Terminal Velocity is only reached when the air resistance acting on the object pushing it up and the forces acting on the object pulling it down are equal. The weight doesn't matter. You change the weight and the velocity changes too, sure, but the fact is the same. You are still falling, the forces will equal out, and while nothing is changing you are still. Falling. And you know that when you stop you will die because there is nothing to catch you from the ground. You have no parachute, not at that speed. If you deployed it you would slow. You are not slowing. You are heading towards an end you do not know how to process.

There is always someone with a heavier weight than you. Sometimes you look around and the people falling are ones you know but how can you catch them? You have no safety net, you are falling faster by the day, you cannot see the ground - can they see the ground? - but you know it's there and you are so scared. Scared for them and scared for you.

He is falling faster than you. He is gripping your shirt but it will only kill you both much, much sooner. He doesn't know this. You do not have the heart to tell him.

You reach terminal velocity again. This time it is a greater speed than before. You still cannot see the ground.

When you are at terminal velocity weight doesn't matter as much as it should. You are falling and you are falling fast, what difference does it make?

The difference, of course, is that if you go too far and too fast then it becomes harder to see the rope as it is thrown at you.

The difference is that you both fall sooner because you cannot help each other.

In practise, of course, this is different. The world is never as bleak as it is in your darkest moments, your fastest moments. The world will help you when your weight keeps increasing and it feels like that final, dreadful velocity will never come and your existence is nothing but the fall.

There are always others, ready to catch you. Whether this is as you leave the plane, as you reach the ground, as you reach terminal velocity.

(Terminal. Ironic, as it isn't the fall that kills you. Isn't that what they say?)

Sometimes it is just a soft place to catch you when you hit the ground. Arms that hold you, messages sent at 9pm exactly, laughter and tears and someone else to take the heaviness of another off your back, if only for a moment. Sometimes as you fall you turn to see the sunset, and everything is still awful and you are still dying but the view from halfway down is so very beautiful.

The view from halfway down. Your final thoughts as you reach the end. The realisation that this velocity isn't all there is, that there is a life, and that you do have a parachute on your back and you know how to use it. You might still be falling but it is so much gentler with their help.

And at the end of the day, I would always prefer to hold another as we fall. Let me hold you. Yes we may die sooner but if I find my parachute let me catch you with it. If there are some to save me then let them save you too. The world is not as bad as you see it and sometimes you have to listen beyond the wind howling in your ears because I am here and you are here and while we're alive isn't it wonderful that we get to see the sunset?

And if I reach safety before you then let me catch you. Let us catch you. We are here for you but you have to be here to see it.

Promise me you'll stay long enough to see it?

#tw:#this is pretty explicitly a badly written metaphor for depression #and depression #be warned #metaphors #physics #terminal velocity #writing things #creative writing #writers #writing community #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing #actually read this one through before posting #are you proud of me?