That night on the show, there’s an expert giving advice about how to survive disasters, natural and man-made. He says it’s a myth that people panic in emergencies. Eighty percent just freeze. The brain refuses to take in what is happening. This is called the incredulity response. “Those who live move,” he says.
~ Jenny Offill, Weather: A Novel (Knopf, February 11, 2020)
Notes: Photo: Nirav Patel. Related Posts: It’s been a long day
Live & Learn 
I opt to move!!
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Good choice!
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I should think so 😉
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
We see what is coming … ‘This is called the incredulity response. “Those who live move,” he says … Jenny Offill, Weather: A Novel (Knopf, February 11, 2020).
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Reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Mark Strand
Keeping Things Whole
In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.
When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.
We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.
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Classic. Yes! Thank you.
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How aptly you summed up these past days, Dave. I have a new word for you to treasure, coined by HH: Je suis un ‘paniquard’ (one to panic quickly), only it wasn’t about a virus but about having to ‘return’ his service flat and missing a letter box key (for which he signed but never got).
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smiling. love it. thanks for sharing Kiki
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such a metaphor for all of life
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it is…
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I also wonder if in this world of immediacy, of news circling the globe as fast as a virus spreading, we aren’t somewhat addicted to ‘crisis’. Feeding off one bad news event after another, we no longer recognize calms before the storm as life has become a hailstorm of bad news that leaves no space for peace of mind.
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Louise, I think you’ve captured it.
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…wondering if anyone else has had the experience when in the midst of an emergency of time slowing down? I’m remembering two, one as a passenger in a car skidding on ice; another in which I was driving and at a quiet corner my car hydro-planed–to avoid hitting another car, while furiously pumping the brakes which wouldn’t work, I ended up in someone’s yard. Time expanded so that a minute felt like a slow slow second to second.
But, I guess that takes a true sense of possible disaster.
Not there now, phew!
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So been there Valerie!
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how true; reminds me of this scene from Annie Hall:
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Loved it! Have never seen this Jim. Thank you.
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Annie Hall is one of my top three movies of all time. Chariots of Fire is probably my favorite…
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Life does freeze in an emergency or tragedy. But you do move surprisingly, not in presence, but rather in a kind of stupor that allows you to do things but without a sense of conscious awareness. Mmm I’m just reflecting on our experience. 🤔
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Karen, I can’t know what you went through but your book shared enough with me to feel a good part of it. Thanks for sharing.
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🙏🏻
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