Don’t let the title fool you. This is not some treatise on the musical or movie. I will admit the song and its emotion helped spark these thoughts. For that, I am grateful to Stephen Lawrence Schwartz, who wrote the song. I hesitate to mention this since it might put a reader off, but this might be my manifesto.

To defy is to “openly resist or refuse to obey.” We start defying gravity when we are born. Gravity is the force that pulls us to the ground. When we learn to walk, run, dance, and move, we are defying gravity. Yes, this means all those lovely people at the gym are defying the hell outta gravity all the time!

Defying this gravity is something of a personal thing for me. I was born with a disability that led to doctors telling me twice that I might never learn to walk. I immensely enjoyed defying gravity and those doctors by proving them wrong.

We defy gravity by living each day and not returning to the surly bonds of the dust from which we came. I really like continuing to defy that gravity. I won’t go so far as to say I am immortal, but I will say I am just too stubborn to die. This has been manifest in my life in a couple of miraculous ways.

To move on to more symbolic versions, I submit that society/civilization has its own forms of gravity or pull on us. There is a strong possibility that the song covers this symbolism, too, in the same way as Let It Go from Frozen. I defy societal gravity as well. I have made decisions and taken actions that defy what society/civilization would deem acceptable.

I’ve become part of a group of folks who daily defy this gravity in their own ways. Some ways are ones I wouldn’t choose, but each to their own defiance choices. We can come together and support each other in the act of defiance. We do so regularly.

To be able to defy, there must be a choice to be made. Isn’t it interesting how someone who is considered evil, wicked, and so forth was the one to make sure we got a chance to choose? Yes, that’s what I am talking about. The Apple, the Knowledge, Free Will, it all boils down to being able to choose. When choices are taken away, it becomes harder and harder to defy gravity. It’s not impossible, but just harder.

I am glad to continue defying gravity in my own ways. I have no plans to change. To quote the song:

I’m through accepting limits
‘Cause someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But ’til I try, I’ll never know

If I’d accepted the limits I was told, I wouldn’t be able to walk. I wouldn’t have children. I wouldn’t have found my happiness. I would have let physical, societal, and biological gravity stop me, hold me down, and suppress what I’ve become. I’ll just keep defying gravity. Want to join me?