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So...you're sitting on one end of a teeter-totter (most people call it a Seesaw, but I like the term teeter-totter, so I'm going to call it that). However, this is not an ordinary teeter-totter, for it does not depend on your physical weight to achieve balance. It depends on the weight of the participants emotional/mental baggage.
You carry a bit of baggage with you, and your weight is a bit more than what is apparent to the naked eye.
The person on the other end of the teeter-totter also has a bit of baggage though, and it is sufficient enough to counter the weight of your baggage.
So equilibrium is achieved. That balance allows for a sharing of each other's baggage load while enjoying the ups and downs of the ride.
At first.
At first because initially only the baggage that is readily apparent in the participants factors in. As the teeter-totter gets moving though, more baggage from each participant is revealed and added to their side of the lever.
If one participant reveals/adds significantly more baggage than the other, then a change in equilibrium occurs.
If that change is such that the other participant is not able to counter it, that participant gets stuck hanging in the air.
We have all seen what happens on the playground when a bigger kid gets a smaller kid stuck in the air on one side of a teeter-totter and then the bigger kid jumps off his or her end, right? The smaller kid comes crashing down fast, and if the smaller kid can't get his or her feet underneath themselves quickly enough, the landing can be painful.
The only way the smaller kid can prevent that is to jump off the teeter-totter first. It's a tough decision to make sometimes because the smaller kid might be higher up that he or she is comfortable with, and the distance of the fall might look to be too far.
But jumping first, while risky, and may actually result in temporary pain or discomfort upon landing, is the only way for the smaller person to have even a modicum of control over the descent.
Too vague?
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