Escape!
April 12th, 2009“More humans have run away from their enemies than have fought them.”
Theodore Zeldon, An Intimate History of Humanity
We are escape artists. We are a species more prone to flight, than facing our battles with our backs up, teeth bared and claws ready to dig in. (Our teeth and claws are pretty useless in a fight, anyway, except against each other.) For most of us, to stand in there and fight means over-riding a highly evolved impulse that commands our bodies, “Run! Get out of there!”
Escape brings us to safety. Escape brings us respite. If successful, we come to a place of real or imagined sanctuary, whether physical or emotional. Escape allows us safe haven where we can gather our wits, our strength, and our allies. And if we need, it allows us to lick our wounds. Emily Dickinson wrote, “Escape – it is the Basket/In which the heart is caught.”
The notion of escape gets a bum wrap in cool-headed times. Only cowards fail to turn and face the test, we’re often told. But, how much we enjoy those Hollywood chase scenes (nearly all movies have one), and how many times do we whisper to the hero or heroine when the villain is nearby and has the upper hand, “Get out of there – please.”
Matrix Bike Chase
In the Alain Resnais film Mon Oncle d’Amerique, the real-to-life neurosurgeon, philosopher, and behavioral researcher Henri Laborit proclaimed that science confirms the opinion of the ancient sages – to run away is the truest wisdom. Fighting, if successful, becomes addictive and draws us into the stress of a competitive life. And the chronic stress of a competitive, combative life will eat at us from the inside out.
You see, it’s not escape that’s the problem, but an inhibited fight-or-flight response. Inhibition can affect health and our immune systems. Once we start a cycle of inhibited action that habit engraves itself into our body-memory. Instead of fighting or fleeing, we will habitually freeze in face of those pesky modern day threats, and thus render ourselves helpless.
Cat and mouse between blind Audrey Hepburn and Alain Arkin, Wait Until Dark
As Laborit urges, escape first and foremost from your inhibitions. We need to fight; or, we need to flee. If neither is possible, then find some other way of turning the unbearable situation into meaningful action. Talk. Write. Get angry. Laugh it off. Insult the person who’s annoying you. Whatever it is, do it with a sense of purpose.
Watch an animal escape from a trap. He’ll escape with power, assuredness, and intent. How far will he run, once free? Until he’s out of harm’s way — no more, no less — then, back to business.
Our escapes are many. We escape into alcohol, religion, art, sports, vacations, movies, drugs, sex and rock-n-roll. We no longer escape boars, bulls, and saber tooth tigers, but bosses, spouses, bill-collectors, kids, and head-concocted threats that live in either our memory or our imaginations. When we meet the enemy now, often he is us, and as often there’s no place to run but to select corners of our own thoughts.
Remember, however, escape, too, can be habit forming. When we run often we forget to stop, or run too far, or run to the wrong corner, or don’t look back so we know when we’re out of harm’s way, thus over-stressing our resources. Sometimes we overstate the danger before us and run when there’s nothing to run from. And other times, we mistake a healthy dose of flight with avoidance, choosing to hide out indefinitely in our trees, caves, or burrows instead of stepping back out into the bump-and-grind of everyday life.
Escape from swift Cheetah!