tripping

I kept tripping over a man carrying a large wooden cross.

The leading cause of fatalities for farmworkers is transportation accidents, and the leading causes of nonfatal injuries are equipment, falling and tripping, and overexertion.

Alongside shots of my dog and gym selfies, my phone’s camera roll is filled with photos of gravestones of all shapes, sizes, and materials: massive granite monuments fit for the Chicago industrialists buried underneath them, humble flat markers that I’m prone to tripping over, and sandstone slabs so worn down by centuries of sun, rain, and snow that there’s no telling who’s buried there.

So “slipping away” is a line in the song “Tripping.”

To me, it had two meanings — one is a positive, of letting go, being open, tripping, losing yourself.