Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Friday, November 25, 2016

Fight? Flee?

Yep. Just clutch that pillow tighter...
Which are you?
I just read that, when faced with something dire, a person will fight.
Or a person will fly.
Sometimes, we don't know which one we are until the climactic moment.
Allow me to illustrate . . .
My bedroom was across and down the hall from the bathroom--directly across said hall from my parents.
And I wasn't an 'early-to-bedder'.
These two facts will become relevant . . .
I had been reading. Something I did every night.
For a very long time.
I finally decided it was time to get ready for bed.
Which included brushing and scrubbing.
And all things hygienic.
I should point out that all other members of my household had long been asleep.
Or so I thought.
I finished my evening ablutions. (Oooh! Good word!)
And, clutching my toiletries bag, headed for my bedroom.
Now the words 'across and down the hall' may sound like a long distance.
It wasn't.
But it was enough. And it was dark.
I darted toward my door and was just reaching for the doorknob when a voice came out of the darkness.
“What are you doing!”
Okay, it was the voice of my father, so it shouldn't have given me the fright it did.
But the fact remains – I was frightened.
And then, the ultimate response.
Fight?
Or fly.
Let me describe:
Pitch dark hall.
Household asleep.
Girl with large imagination dashing across the hall. (Quickly, so as to avoid things that might come out of the darkness and 'get her'.)
Voice rumbles out of said darkness.
What does girl do?
Fight?
Fly?
No. 
Girl crumples to the floor.
I am not making this up.
My legs folded up and I fell to the floor.
When faced with a crisis, or so I thought, I curled up. Like a little spider. But with less legs.
So, which are you?
Fight?
Or fly?
When you decide, let me know.
I will be the shivering little puddle of goo curled up on the floor.
Sigh.

17 comments:

  1. HA! That's the third option in the animal kingdom, play dead. You would have made an adorable possum.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why, thank you! :)
      When I hang upside down, I get a headache, though . . .

      Delete
  2. It is a defense that some animals use successfully. I probably would have just froze.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll bet you know I"m fight. Definitely. So I'd be eaten by a predator, probably, but I'd go down fighting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you have to go...make sure you leave some impressive scars! :)

      Delete
  4. Like you, I freeze. Paid off in spades when I accidentally disturbed a wasp nest.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So the options are really, fight, flight or play dead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I tend to shriek and run around in circles clutching my head in my hands ... I'm not sure if that's in any of those categories ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we'll put you in the 'draw the predator away from the rest of us' category...

      Delete
  7. I belong to the play dead category. I am to slow for flight, and an inept fighter. Not certain that many of the dead shake as much as I do though...

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'd be right down there on the floor quaking next to you Diane :)

    ReplyDelete

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