Teaching Ethan

Mighty, little cockroach

Aug 26, 2008 Uncategorized

My wife is usually a calm, collected person under even the most extreme circumstances.

Well, that depends on how “extreme” is being defined.

The one situation which will get her all worked up would be for her to be in the same room or car with a cockroach or lizard. Nothing else, as I have observed, will get her into a frenzy.

It always reminds me of what a Mathematics professor in my first university days once said in a lecture, “Fear is making giants of dwarves.” I have also read some authors saying that FEAR really is an accronym for “False Evidences Appearing Rear.”

While the lizard or cockroach may appear small, their threat is very real to many people. And because they perceive the threat to be real, their reaction towards them is one of fret, anxiety, fear and the approach is either fight or flight (this is mostly preferred).

There are many of such seemingly small and unconsequential situations in our lives. However, the way we see them often results in their becoming HUGE issues and problems and thus, we react (instead of respond) if a way so as to handle a HUGE problem arriving at a state of OVER-REACTION.

I wonder if such reactions wear out our system – body and mind – faster than the natural environment does.