Forget climate change for a moment. Let’s talk about something with real gravity.

It’s probably just me, but is gravity getting stronger? Could it be that gravity and age are related? Maybe it is that size does matter. Whatever the unsolved mystery is, I am convinced something is changing.

Example: I have been playing golf for 50-plus years, and, in the past few weeks, two fellow golfers I was playing with fell down.

Now, if you play golf, watch it on television, or know anything about the sport, you know the game is a non-violent form of recreation. Golfers just don’t fall down. Maybe it’s because I am playing in a senior league and gravity has selected us older gentlemen as easy targets. Once we fall down, gravity hangs on to us a bit before we find the strength to stand again.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gravity is somewhere in the nearby trees, snickering at us. Gravity is also having an effect on my golf ball. It comes down much quicker than it used to, and it doesn’t go as far, either.

Well, Mr. Gravity, enough is enough. Go find some other group to yank on.

Example: My storage shed. If it’s anything like yours, it is overstuffed, with hazards lurking all over the place.

But I have always been able to navigate the obstacle course pretty well. That was until this past week. Phone was in one hand, my other hand balancing a heavy box on my shoulder, and a 6-inch-high trailer hitch on the floor. Easy enough: Just step over the trailer hitch.

But no.

Mr. Gravity let go of the trailer hitch for a moment, allowing it to raise at least a couple of inches, because my 6-inch step-over was at least two inches too low. Down I went, and I have proof in the manner of a gash on my right shin.

Not funny, Mr. Gravity. What did I ever do to you?

Realizing gravity was changing, I looked it up. It seems size matters, in that the larger the mass of the two bodies — in my case, my expanding girth and Mother Earth herself — seems to have a growing attraction.

Once again, this is creating an issue. Either I am getting shorter or gravity is pulling my pant legs longer. At what point do we call it a crisis and ask Congress to address the new phenomenon of gravity increase?

I also found gravity means an event or situation of extreme importance or seriousness.

So, I guess that means I am on my own trying to reverse the troubling trend, because Congress seems to have given up on tackling any issues of extreme importance or seriousness. They are all enveloped in the art of politics and upcoming elections. All their time and energy will be put into childish games of name-calling and finger-pointing, leaving no room or desire to solve problems that have an effect on the rest of us.

With all this extra gravity going around, maybe they could find a little of it and get some real work done.

I would gladly loan them some of mine. Extra gravity, I mean.

Gravity is what keeps things (and people) grounded, except it has little effect on Washington, for some reason. What we need as a nation is a whole new crop of well-grounded politicians. Folks that understand the gravity if the situation, if you will. It seems too many of them run for office with good intentions, but, once in Washington, they lose grip with what’s happening on the ground and are grabbed by the force of partisanship, which obviously has more strength and power than gravity.

So, Mr. Gravity, if you are reading this, take your silly game off the golf course and my storage shed and take your not-so-funny pranks to the capitol. They need you a lot more than I do. They need to spend a little more time with their feet on the ground and nobody better than you to pull them back to Earth. It will give you something to do, and it has to be more entertaining than pulling on my pant legs.

It will be a challenge. The last time Congress dealt with gravity was when NASA began sending astronauts into space.

Seems a ballpoint pen doesn’t work in zero gravity. They had NASA develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, under water, on almost any surface and temperatures from below freezing to 570 degrees. It took 10 years and cost billions of dollars. Had they asked us well-grounded folks, we would have suggested to use a pencil instead. That’s what we use on the golf course.

Does Congress need to come back to Earth? Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.