Rise and Run

From the first step, whether on flat ground, climbing up, or heading down, we spend our lives on the rise and run. We like the comfort of a zero rise — you know, that good flat stretch. Still, every now and then, a gentle incline feels right, just enough to break the stride. A downhill run can be fun too, though not for long; sooner or later, the quadriceps remind us it’s time to lift the slope back to level.

Not much thought is usually given to the invention of the rise and run. I hadn’t thought about it myself until I started using the inclined plane that leads to the upper parking. I could have taken the elevator, of course, but as you see, it hasn’t been installed yet. Even if it had, I’d still have to run across the lot to get to it — and without some rise or run, that crossing itself would be no small feat.

It really is fascinating. This simple invention takes you from here to up there, and from up there back down here. Designed so precisely to mix rise and run — or run and fall — depending on where you stand.

I can’t help but imagine how proud the first inventor of stairs must have been. Maybe sometime around 6000 BCE, someone got tired of scrambling up a bank, vaulting to a doorway, or tumbling into their own yard, and had an “aha” moment. Maybe they copied the shape of a worn hillside path, or a natural rock ledge. Nobody can know for sure.

But if I ever manage to build that time machine before I run out of time, I think this might be my very first stop.