Grit My Teeth: April 2023

Saturday, April 15, 2023

I'm Am Not An Animal... Oh Wait, Yes I Am

I love the moments in life when we as humans, as the people who believe are above every other creature on earth, are reminded that we're animals. I feel like some people are gleefully oblivious of this, and that's okay. In fact I give them all the credit in the world, since it's rarely a good moment to discover that the pedestal you put yourself on is a lie. We can debate the roles of humans on this planet forever, and until we die off or take over the universe we'll never know for sure if it's true.

I don't want to get into particular detail, but today I had a situation of great stress happen, and I realized I am an animal. I've often had a certain reaction to stress, but I was never sure if the reaction is what caused the stress or if the stress caused the reaction before. Today on the other hand I was faced with what can objectively be a stressful situation and the reaction hit like clockwork. We were hit with a huge sudden, out of season wind and rain storm, and I had to deal with a terrace that had furniture that flew away. It was pretty severe, but fortunately no one was hurt.

However while I was awaiting word on if anyone was hurt and what the fate of our airborne tables had, as well as still ridding out the storm, I was stressed. My body was making calls and trying to figure out what to do next. Then, all of a sudden a secondary issue arose, and at that moment I realized that I am an animal. It made no sense at all, but that issue had to be dealt with. I also knew at that moment that I was no better than a scared hamster. I also came to terms with it and was happy to know that while I might occasionally think I'm better, I'm not. Instead I fit neatly into the world along with every other scared animals large or small.