Creative Nonfiction: Suspension

A very short contemplation on the word “suspension.”

Suspension: to hold, perhaps upward, like a bridge that is suspended mid-air over a river. But what about the phrase in-school suspension? Or to be suspended from school altogether?

I’ve been to ISS, but only once–it’s a pain in the ass. You’ve got to sit on a stool the whole day with a lunch tray as your desk. But I have to admit: it was kinda fun. I sat next to my friends and it was a challenge to try and hold conversations with them without the monitor hearing. We got to do all sorts of weird stuff like take out the trash and clean the cafeteria. Just how would that cafeteria stay clean if there weren’t a handful of students in ISS? I was a little mischievous in high school, if I’m being honest.

Suspension: to be held. For example, “class is suspended” means something like “class is paused for the time being.”

Frozen. I supposed that, in a sense, bridges are frozen in the sky.

But there is a tension in this word, if you look hard enough. A suspension bridge has supports full of tension force, and suspension from school implies a sort of tension in conduct and behavior.

Suspension carries with it–holds with it–tension.

Is there not tension between all things? What is the opposite of suspension?

I thought of embrace. I thought of release. Of motion resuming and of bridges falling.