It’s how we’re built. Danger, uncertainty, you name it, humans are driven to one of two choices quickly. We’re familiar with the phrase ‘fight or flight’ to describe how our bodies make these choices very rapidly, even where our brain is not quite tuned into what we’re doing.
When it’s a sabre tooth tiger, fair enough – and a straight forward choice. But what of the colleague at work who sets us on edge, but who we have to keep working with? What about the sudden crisis or the email that demands immediate action? And what happens when, like it or not, we have to stay, for reasons of income, prestige, and so on?
Fight is not an option sanctioned by HR – at least, not the blow to the jaw type. All flint-topped spears to be checked in at reception before proceeding into the main building. While there’s various little fights going on with our environment, whether in our heads, our emails and so on, I suspect that flight is the main alternative for many of us.
And what is flight? I thought to call this post ‘Escape’, and often that’s part of the fantasy, whether through holidays, through weekends away, or even just the late-night gig. I guess I’m interested in thinking about the level to which we’re aware of our flight away from stresses, and the way in which it becomes hidden under other motives.
We have to eat. No quibble there. We have a nice range of foodstuffs available, lots of shops and eateries prepared to cater to us round the clock. But the chocolate bar on the Friday afternoon to keep going, the swift drink on arrival home, how many of these are treats, and how many are little escape mechanisms for us?
Stone-age man had perhaps some difficulties staying in one place – what with needing to seek out food, protect himself from others who might take this from him, and so on. Flight was probably forced on him more, but there were some advantages to it to.
Mortgage holders will know that flight becomes a more limited option when you have a reason to stay put year after year. Marriage, families, all of these are built to benefit from you sticking around. Hopefully, these things also mean you have less reason to flee, or even to fight so much to secure what you need.
But what happens when these responsibilities and different ‘threats’ seem to co-exist? How, equally, do we keep the threats from spilling over into the other areas of our lives?
You can see from the length of this that I’m musing, rather than offering solutions. The more I go on, the more I discover how many little escape hatches I use – and how, in various ways, they seem to become more necessary as life goes on.
Given that the blog offers its own means of escape, at times, I’ll reengage for now…for a bit, at least. Sunday evening TV is all about escape. Perhaps it’s time to do some more research.