One day, I was cutting the grass and pondering the nature of the universe.
I watched the grass clippings as they were ejected from the mower, each falling perfectly to the earth.
I wondered how gravity was accomplishing its job on the clippings. By what mechanism was each pull accomplished so precisely?
I thought of all the ways in nature that I could think of in which things are pulled. To pull, something must be latched onto or captured by something. In all those natural cases, an arm, a hand, a rope, a string, a cable, a net, a hook, or something—anything is connected to an anchor point, latches on, and pulls.
That's when I wondered ...
How is it that something is always latching on, hooking up, and towing each and every one of these grass clippings towards the center of the earth? And, if so, what is used to latch on? Where's the anchor point? What cables are being used? How is each and every one always connected? Why do none ever escape? Where are these pulling devices hidden when they aren't pulling?
Thinking about it this way, the concept of gravity pulling in nature doesn't work. In fact, it's absurd.
This realization led me to look at things from the entirely opposite direction—truly 180 degrees.
I thought, if these clippings aren't being pulled, then what's happening to them?
What if they are being pushed?
That's when I realized that nature pushes things into place—almost everywhere you look.
Examples: Air pressure forms bubbles, pushing everything to the center of a sphere. Water pressure forms bubbles, pushing everything to the center of a sphere.
Therefore, why isn't gravity the same? Why, like in air and water, aren't these grass clippings being pushed by outward pressure towards the center of the sphere of the Earth?
This is the line of thinking that began this journey.
And others have travelled this path.
The first one I found was Walter Wright, author of the 1979 book Gravity Is a Push, where he proposed gravity as a pushing force based on years of research.<grok:render card_id="43fbff" card_type="citation_card" type="render_inline_citation">
Later, I found that Einstein had considered mechanical explanations for gravity, though his theory of general relativity ultimately described it as the curvature of spacetime.<grok:render card_id="d226a3" card_type="citation_card" type="render_inline_citation">
And most recently, I've learned of Le Sage, whose 18th-century theory explained gravity through streams of tiny particles pushing matter together.<grok:render card_id="32bb12" card_type="citation_card" type="render_inline_citation">
These concepts are not new, but their application to unification may be or apparently is.
I'm grateful to join these others and more on this wonderful journey.
Credits
This article was edited with assistance from Grok, an AI built by xAI, to refine structure, clarity, and flow while preserving the original voice and ideas. Image created with Google AI.