Zero Gravity

Big Kid just came into my room, eyes watering and lip trembling, to tell me in a breaking, squeaking little voice that he's scared.

"What are you scared of?" I asked.

"That gravity will go away," he cried.

He's so worried about it he can't sleep and he never wants to watch his favorite science show again because they showed astronauts in zero gravity and it really upset him. This wasn't a getting-out-of-bed tactic either, homeboy was genuinely afraid gravity would cease to exist and his stomach was hurting over the thought.

WTF?

Gravity? Seriously? One of the few things in the world that you can count on?

He came home from school the other day highly disturbed about a poem they had read about a baby eating a microchip and catching a virus. He couldn't stop thinking that the baby could possibly be deleted this way and he thought I should call his teacher and suggest they not read poems like this anymore because it could really freak kindergartners out. (I declined on making that call.)

Although comical in a "What in the world?" kind of way, I'm worried that his little brain is wearing him out. He's been dealing with some anxiety issues lately; he got in trouble with us (hardly, he really never gets in trouble) for slacking off in school a bit and became so stressed out over it I was afraid his teachers would think we were beating him.

Gravity may be here to stay, but I do worry about him keeping both feet on the ground.