Fight or Flight

When nature is stressed it reverts to one of two choices: to stay and fight or to run and save one’s derrier, also known as the fight or flight response. No matter the situation, one always chooses one or the other. Fight or Flight. As it turns out, I’m one for “flight”. Not like that’s news to anyone. In fact, if you know me, you would know that I’m definitely not one for confrontation. If I can avoid it, I will. The “We Need to Talk” talk? Let’s change the subject, shall we? Fight downtown? Call cops? Head the other direction. Dark, scary alley versus bright and shiny one in the opposite direction? Bright and shiny please! Okay, but that one is probably a given to anyone.

Fight or flight. It’s instinct. It’s what scientists have studied in animals and humans alike. When one perceives danger, adrenalin kicks in. The same adrenalin that kicked in and allowed a mother to move a car to save her son. The same adrenalin that kicks in when someone decides to defy death by jumping off of a plane and goes skydiving. Your heart starts racing. Your breath becomes quick and shallow. You pale. You flush. You lose sight of anything else around you. All you see is danger.

And you decide. Fight. Or flight.

Some choose fight. And some, me in many cases, choose flight.

But then again, if you want something bad enough, if it’s truly worth it to you, then the only choice is to fight. And so fight it shall be.