8:31 p.m. - 2007-10-23
I was right all along.
If you've known me for a while, you'll know that I have this thing that I call "The panic principal." Katie Meyer and Mae wrote a song about it. I tried to explain it at the show where we performed it, but people just aren't on board.
Basically, the panic principal is kind of about balance. It's like when something crazy happens, someone in the situation should, in a sense, panic, thereby confirming the seriousness/scariness of the situation, comunicating to all that something is unwell. Then, others in the situation should be completely calm, since the gravity of the situation, the emotion, has been expressed, and handle the emergency.
People have said that they think this is dumb because it is always bad to panic. I get why they say that but imagine if there was a live chicken suddenly running through your living room and everyone just went calmly got up and captured the chicken and, like, set it free or whatever. It would be like it didn't even happen. So, I say, someone should "panic."
I read this article today, an excerpt is below. And I'd say, to a small extent, it says my thinking is on the right track.
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Levine noted that people who have physical emergency reactions often cope better with crisis, and show fewer symptoms of trauma afterward, than people who hold still. Stress compels action; in snafu situations, Mother Nature gives just one instruction to all her children, and that instruction is, "Move!"
When the unexpected strikes, find a private space and let your body do whatever it wants. Heave, kick, shake your head like a wet cat. Then let that energy flow into constructive action, whether it's contesting a credit card charge, yanking cactus spines out of your child, or slapping duct tape on a broken pipe.
I got a chance to test this advice when one of my car tires blew out. After regaining control of the fishtailing vehicle, then coaxing it over to the freeway shoulder, I went a little crazy, shuddering and shouting incoherently for about 10 seconds.
Sure enough, this seemed to open up a channel to calm. Feeling very alert, I got out and changed that tire with my own profoundly nonmechanical hands. I drove away feeling so empowered, so conscious of life's fragility, that even the disruption of my schedule hardly bothered me. I do believe letting myself have those initial 10 seconds of physical freak-out cleared my mind and body for positive action. Thank you, Dr. Levine.
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As a side note, my childhood doctor's name was Dr. Levine. How amazing would it be if it was him - the little Jewish man who I once pointed out in front of him that he was considerably shorter than my mother, who is about 5 foot 2.
