Warning: This post talks vaguely about the musical Wicked, so now that you’ve been warned you can’t blame me if you haven’t seen it and I ruin it for you!

Do me a quick favour - think about everything you have ever done in your lifetime. While you’re thinking about all that ask yourself a question, have you ever defied gravity? Of course, I don’t mean it as though you have literally pulled off an amazing feat of human levitation. I mean it in more of a metaphorical sense. Have you ever done the unthinkable? The amazing? Have you ever truly smashed the limits that have been set in place around you, whether they be put there by yourself of others? Something so monumental that is could be equated to a person literally defying gravity?

I personally don’t think I ever have.

Now something has set me off on this train of thought and it is not letting me go! Recently while I was travelling with a friend in London we visited the West End theatres and took in a show of the Broadway hit, Wicked. For those of you who don’t know, possibly you’ve been living under a rock or you’re just not interested in that sort of thing, Wicked is an adaption from a novel written as a prequel to the film, The Wizard of Oz, and it follows the story of Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, and what happened before she was given that title. Bear with me here, I’m not completely crazy. In the show is one of the most impressive songs that I have ever seen/heard, Defying Gravity. In this song the audience sees Elphaba really becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, however, it is not because she is indeed wicked. Instead, the Wizard labels her as this to rally the people of Oz against her because she would not got along with his evil plans. In the song Elphaba is trying to break free from this persecution (furthered by the fact that she has faced persecution all her life due to the fact that she was born with green skin), and also fighting back for a cause she sees as just. In the end, she literally flies away to escape this persecution - hence defying gravity. You can watch this song below, if you like.

What has got me thinking about this is not the simple story in which a character flies away off stage, but the simple idea of someone defying gravity. The idea that someone could undertake an act so monumental that it could be considered equalled to someone overcoming one of the most basic forces in our world. It has got me thinking about whether I have ever done anything this monumental. If not, why not? It has got me thinking about whether or not I could ever really do anything this monumental. Again, if not, why not? None the less, my thoughts keep coming back to one simple idea - just because I never have and possibly never will truly defy gravity in this sense, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try… And I think this is true for everyone. I am not only referring to this in terms of fighting the just cause, or trying to break free from persecution either. I am referring to anything and everything. People doing something, anything that they consider to be monumental, something they would never normally do in their daily lives. The more I write about this, the more I think it’s starting to sound like one of those “live every day to the fullest” special-for-TV-only movies, but that’s not even what I’m talking about. I’m not saying you have to necessarily live every day to the fullest. In fact, I am one of the biggest advocates for occasionally sitting around and just doing nothing…

What I’m trying to say is - no matter what you do in your daily life, wheter you try to live every day to the fullest or if you’re just cruising along day-by-day… every now and then stop and think to yourself, “Have I done anything huge lately? Anything monumental? Have I defied gravity?” You don’t neccessaily need to go out into the world and do something right away either, just keep it in the back of your mind and if the opportunity should happen to come up to do one thing that you would never normally do, something different, something completely outside the boundaries of your life… then give it a go! Try it! If you have a cause you strongly believe in, go out one afternoon and do something about it. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to do but it just doesn’t fit into what you see as being you, or doesn’t fit into what other people see as being you… just do it. Get out there and do some gravity defying, people! It’s only basic physics… I mean, who couldn’t beat that!? I think I’m gonna give it a try.

And all of a sudden I feel way to preachy… Sorry about that.