C I P R I A N I

Recently I’ve been finding myself a little higher than usual.

I took my son to the museum a few weeks ago and we rode the escalator up to the second level and walked across a bridge to an exhibit in another building. I carried him across the bridge as a precaution. The slits between the guardrails seemed to be big enough for a child his age to slip through. This by itself concerned me. But as I noticed these gaps in the bannister, I was struck by how high up we were. So much so that I thought I might be a little dizzy. I was a little dizzy.

I thought back to a time when I was younger at Three Rivers Stadium, There was a small slit, less than an inch between the huge walls that served as guardrails that separated the walkway from the ground far below. It too was very high up and I only experienced slight dizziness when I walked by that little slit.

But we were up much higher than the bridge at the museum. And I was much younger when I was at the stadium.

A few days later my son and I were walking around outside the Beverly Hills Children’s Library and once again we found ourselves walking high above the ground on the steps that wrap around the structure. Once again, I felt slightly dizzy.

Finally, last Friday we were back at LACMA and going up another escalator. This one is big. While it only takes you to the top floor of an adjacent building, it reminded me of something from a theme park. It is a couple stories high and when I looked down, once again, I found myself slightly dizzy.

As far as I know, I’d never been afraid of heights. I’d never been much a fan of roller coasters or thrill rides, but ferris wheels (and certainly escalators) never gave me any problem at all.

I wasn’t wearing my glasses. My ears may have been plugged up. Maybe I was thirsty or hungry.

Or it might be age.

There is a dynamic range in hearing that’s lost as we get older. The high end and the low end disappear from our audibility as we gather years. Maybe this is in exchange for wisdom. Perhaps wisdom is gained because we hear less noise?

I think this will pass. Not the aging, of course, but the slight vertigo. At least on the escalators.

Another thing that dawned on me is that I really haven’t been on escalators much lately. At least ginormous two-story, outdoor ones. Or on bridges. So it would seem that I might need to cross a few more bridges and take a few more trips to higher ground so it doesn’t seem so disorienting when I do.

I also just got my glasses back from the shop.