Practical Hishtavut

י'ו בחשון תשס"ח

A comment by Fairiegodmother on my livejournal regarding my near-accident experience with a deer stirred me toward recognizing that, other than noting the actual occurrence of the event, I was not physically, emotionally or mentally discombobulated by almost hitting a deer last night.

Concerning last night's event - It was odd, but I wasn't shaken up at all. One would have naturally expected some sort of adrenaline rush or pounding heart or some kind of physical reaction to the emergency - like one usually gets in situations like this - but that didn't happen, at all. I was clear and calm through the whole thing, as if it was not happening. No beating heart. No increased respirations. No exclamation of the emotions or mind. No panic reaction. Nothing. Odd.

I was calm through the near accident as if it was not happening. The accident didn't happen.

At some level, my nefesh already knew that the accident wasn't going to happen, even though my normal awareness perceived that, had the deer frozen, the accident indeed would have happened (see link). In other words, my physical eyes saw accurately what was in front of me, but my spiritual eyes accurately saw the outcome - the deer would move and not freeze - and communicated this information in some very practical way to my nefesh, which responded by acting as if the (near) accident was not happening. It feared not what my physical eyes saw.

The accident was a "not happening" event.

Interesting.