Fight Or Flight

It is estimated that nearly 200 people jumped to their death from the WTC on 9/11. Many people have difficulty understanding how they could do that and why. I am not one of those people.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled "Preparing For The Moment To Come." It was about Aron Ralston, a mountaineer who was forced to choose between his limb and his life when his hand became trapped by a boulder weighing over 800 pounds. Long story short, Aron chooses life when he makes the difficult decision to cut off his own hand with a dull pocket knife in order to free himself. Although when I wrote that post, I left out part of the story - the personal side. I watched the movie with my sister and as time dwindled down and Aron's character needed to make the "limb of life" decision, I blurted out what I would do if I were in his shoes.

"I would use that pocket knife to stab myself in the heart."

I said it with certainty and without hesitation. She looked at me like I was stark raving mad! To me it seemed like a genius solution. But the minute it passed my lips, I knew that was a thought I should have kept to myself. It shocked and sadden her to know. She couldn't understand how such an outrageously violent and permeant act could even enter my head! For whatever reason, cutting off my hand just wouldn't occur to me, but killing myself would. And the way I saw it, I could either stand there and die the inevitable death, or I could take control of my fate. Cutting off your hand most likely would cause you to bleed a slow death. So why not just get it over with by taking the blade straight to the heart? But the more interesting question is...

For someone who has always been a fighter in life, why would I choose to flee?

The fight-or-flight response states that an acute threat to survival is marked by physical changes, including nervous and endocrine changes, that prepare a human or an animal to react or to retreat. The decision making process isn't based on careful analysis, but rather on pure instinct - an immediate reaction to the current situation. So I wonder...

What makes one person accept the inevitable? Another person to refuse acceptance of the inevitable? And yet another person to accept the inevitable, but control the pace and manner in which it arrives?