Sometimes, things fall down. They just do.
Right out of nowhere. Or somewhere. But the unexpected happens.
There are two little stories in the news recently, which reminded me of this. The bad news first, I suppose.
Easter Sunday also falls on April Fool’s Day. Finally! Finally, we can make some sense of the big rabbit who goes around birthing chocolate eggs in the strangest of places.
But on a more serious note, other things may fall out of strange places on Easter. China’s Tiangong-1 space station. Yes, this space station was launched in 2011. And, apparently, it is falling to Earth. Estimated time of arrival is anywhere between March 31 and April 2. But the science guys are putting big money on the April 1st window.
Its name translates roughly to Heavenly Palace 1. If God gets on board, this could be the second coming. But I doubt that will happen. No. Most of it will probably burn up on re-entry. The big odds of its fall will be over the U.S., anywhere from Colorado to New Hampshire. For all the Ohio readers, that would include us.
So, if you are planning Easter Dinner, anywhere, keep your praying eyes to the sky for that Heavenly Palace 1.
The second story was a thing gone awry. Well, maybe not a thing, but a WHO. There was a wedding in Cheshire, Britain. The couple getting married thought it would be a really cool thing — a “hoot” if you will — to have an owl deliver the wedding rings. So they hired a gig to do this. And, everything started out as planned when the handler released the animal. The owl flew over and landed on the arm of the best man.
But then one of the other guys in the wedding party pointed at the owl. The owl was all like, “Bro. You want me to fly over there?” And so it flew at the guy. There were bodies flying everywhere to get out of the way of the Owl. Finally, they calmed everyone down, and the Owl went back save to its handler.
Yeah. Things that fail when they fall. Or fall when they fail.
Like the Hollywood Sign. That’s another example. It sort of took a bow.
The sign was erected in 1923 and originally read “HOLLYWOODLAND.” It wasn’t intended as an Iconic Marker. The original purpose was to advertise the name of a new segregated housing development in the hills above the Hollywood district of Los Angeles.
Then it got old. Over the course of more than half a century, the sign began to rot. It was only designed to stand for only 18 months. So in 50 years, it sustained extensive damage and deterioration.
During the early 1940s, Albert Kothe (the sign’s official caretaker) caused an accident that destroyed the letter H. The guy was driving drunk and lost control of his vehicle. He drove off the cliff directly behind the H. He wasn’t hurt, but he killed the H.
In 1978, a public campaign started. Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, and the community Chamber, set out to replace the severely deteriorated sign with a more permanent structure.
They found nine donors who gave US$27,777.77 each to sponsor replacement letters. (Like Hugh Hefner himself, and Gene Autry, and Andy Williams, and … Alice Cooper of all people).
So yeah, sometimes things fall down, and they get put back up. That Hollywood sign.
Or they get up on their own, like that Owl.
Or they stay down, and hopefully don’t hurt anyone, like a Chinese Spacelab.
There are a lot of quotes about falling down, and the important thing, of getting back up. But we are humans, and there are many ways to do this.
So if you fall down, and feeling like staying down for a while, there is no harm in that. Get back up when you can, or when you are ready. Conversely, sometimes we need help getting back up. And that is good too. And other times, we can spread our own wings, and fly in a new direction.
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“And falling’s just another way to fly.”
― Emilie Autumn
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“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
― Salvador Dalí
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“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”
― Benjamin Franklin
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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
― Thomas A. Edison
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“Apparently, Thomas Edison was slower to learn than Benjamin Franklin. Much.” — Polly Kronenberger
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