I have taken a cue from Taigaku (pun intended) to present some parallels and parables on life and living through applications of the principles of flying.
The flying of which I speak is gliding. Not hang-gliding, but proper engine-less controlled flight in a sailplane/glider. (Remember the scene from "The Thomas Crown Affair" with Steve McQueen aloft to the strains of "Windmills of Your Mind"?)
When I was between 17 & 19 (in Oz) I would accompany my father to his weekend recreation at the local Gliding Club where we both learned to fly. Towed aloft behind a Cessna tug plane (with instructor on board in the second seat, of course), to release at about 2,000 ft, we would then try to find 'lift' via 'thermals' (i.e. rising spirals of warm air currents formed from the ground up) If you have ever watched eagles circling high in the sky, that is what they are using to soar so effortlessly - thermals. They can be a helpful sign to a glider pilot looking for the best lift. Strict etiquette must be followed regarding entering an 'occupied' thermal, however, as an eagle can get a bit pissed if one enters counter to his direction! That rule naturally applies to gliders joining other gliders in the same thermal, for obvious safety reasons. Smart birds, eagles.
First, to set the scene for some counter-intuitive analogies for success in Life, here are the basics of flight control:-
1)* The 'joy-stick': that which controls the 'ailerons' on each wing-tip (trailing edge) to drop the wing left or right for a turn; &/or the 'trim' on the tailplane to push the nose up or down.
2)*The 'rudders': the foot pedals, left & right, which control the (vertical) rudder on the tailplane - to make a turn, left or right.
e.g. To make a right turn: right rudder pedal with stick pushed to right, simultaneously. (also, to 'side-slip': right stick, left rudder simultaneously)
The 'joy-stick' is pushed forward to put the nose down = speed up; stick is pulled back to raise the nose to slow/level off. Too far back and the windspeed drops to stall, i.e. falls out of the sky!
For practice, we were taught to deliberately induce a stall (i.e. stick pulled back far enough plus over to left/right to drop a wing) that put the plane into a spiral nose dive toward the ground! To recover? Opposite rudder to counteract the spin (makes sense so far...) plus, counter-intuitively, to push the stick all the way forward, not pull back!!
The nose would then rise back up for levelling off. Another situation requiring an apparently paradoxical countermeasure was that of losing too much height when returning to the airfield for a landing. There is a lot involved in learning to judge when your height and distance from the runway is right; too much or too little for an 'ideal' landing; and how to adjust/compensate accordingly. If no, or too little, lift is found on your flight, you have to head back to the airfield. The procedure for normal landings followed a rectangular pattern with height checkpoints along the way. If you ran out of height before reaching the manoeuvering area you could be too 'high' for the runway (i.e. would over-shoot) and therefore, also too 'low' to gain the optimum height necessary for final approach. Sound confusing? Yeah, I know...'cause it is!
Anyway, now that you're totally cheesed-off with my "conundrumatics", I'll try to describe the example. I once watched a skilled pilot (in a single-seater, high-performance glider) perform an amazing manoeuver to overcome this dilemma. Coming in too high/too low, at about 200 ft, he put the nose down to pick up the extra speed he needed to catapult/swoop back up to a height where he could safely circle around for his final approach and landing. A highly risky, though ultimately successful, feat!
Gliding was my father's passion -- going on to gain his Silver Cs and other awards for height, distance, and navigation competitions. Gliders/sailplanes are the safest way to fly, not reliant on an engine, your flying skill and common sense (the seat of your pants) is all you need. Usually, no-one but a total idiot can crash a glider. Stranded in the 'sticks' is about as bad as it gets. (The rare exceptions would be a crack-up in mid-air from aerobatics unsuitable to the type of plane -- or a mid-air collision).
Some funny sayings popular with gliding buffs:- "A mid-air collision in the morning can ruin your whole day"..."Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing"..... the line my father liked to use when asked why he preferred gliding to powered flying: "I always wanted to spit on an eagle." (figuratively of course)
"Fasten Your Wings with Love",
~Makera (Gennelle)
PS Has anyone read "Jonathon Livingston Seagull"?
PPS Taigaku, I think your spiritual extrapolations on pool, with the angles and equal/opposite laws of motion in play, could be very apropo.
! And better than singing "Kiss the Ground" 
. "Today's Special: chip 'n' choke"