Thursday, April 30, 2009

Oh the irony!

So Usain Bolt, the fastest man on the planet drove his sports car into a ditch. Unhurt - and no doubt deeply relieved that this was the case - he stepped out of the car...

...and hurt his foot!

Several years ago, I was driving on a dirt road when I hit a patch of loose sand and lost control of the car. The car went nose first over the edge of a ravine and rolled several times on different axes before ending up on its wheels 25 metres down, with its nose pointing back up towards the road, as if it had every intention of going back there for another try.

The car was pretty much cylindrical by this time. Every window was shattered. The mirrors had come off. My luggage was strewn all over the place. The box of 3.5" floppies I had had on the back seat had landed in a small thorn tree, which now looked as if it bore rather odd fruit. It honestly looked as if no-one could possibly have survived the crash. I was completely unharmed. I kid you not. I didn't even have stiff muscles the next day.

BUT

When I tried to climb back up out of the ravine, I slipped and wrenched my knee. Note to self: remove high-heeled shoes before imitating a mountain goat.

There seems to be some danger in "Phew!"Apparently more people die during the descent from Everest than the ascent.

Perhaps there's the big adrenalin rush to deal with the critical event, and in the aftermath, we're most vulnerable. Although I'm not sure that adrenalin rush is quite the word associated with the long, arduous climb up the highest mountain on earth!

I wonder if this is a known factor, for example, in combat situations, and whether the training addresses it.

Hmm.

2 comments:

John Zurovchak said...

Karyn,

What a great post with a wonderful question to ponder about the "aftermath" of an event.

I saw the same story on Bolt late last night - but I just filed it away as a story of interest. You ALWAYS have a way of linking these stories to learning and really challenging me to think in new ways!

Keep up the great posts. I look forward to your blog every day over here in the US! I appreciate your perpetual curiosity and your ability to link events from walking a dog to a potentially fatal automobile accident to learning. (Not to mention dead skunks in the middle of the road!).

Thanks again for all that you do in your blog. You have helped me both professionally and personally in many ways.

JZ

The upsycho said...

@John What a sweet thing to say. Thank you.