> CD #115: Survival mechanisms

I have always been a low-energy person but, at times, my energy levels dip even lower than normal, and I instinctively switch over to a different mode of being that will allow me to stay functional while conserving resources.

Apparently, snails do this too, as I’ve been reading in The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. When conditions become suboptimal during hot summer months, they go into a kind of dormancy during called estivation:

“It climbs up a plant, tree or wall to be away from the earth’s heat and beyond reach of predators or floodwaters. Finding a safe place, it attaches itself firmly with mucus, usually with the shell opening facing upward, which may alert it to weather changes. then it seals up its entrance with a temporary door made of mucus. This storm door, or epiphragm, protects it from shifts in temperature and humidity. A snail may estivate for weeks or months, or even years.”

(I should stop here and say how much I love this book, and how surprised I am that reading about snails is giving me life.)

None of my own survival mechanisms involve mucus, but they are just as instinctual and observable as a snail’s epiphragm. I don’t always understand their functions, but I’m willing to give it a try:

1. Watching television: Re-runs, new shows, prestige shows, garbage—it’s all fair game when I’m just trying to get through the day. I assume this survival mechanism is tied to growing up with TV as the third parent in my household, and there’s a level of comfort in being distracted by something that feels like life without having to participate in it or do anything, really, except watch. Nobody on TV wants anything from you, and sometimes that is exactly what we need.

2. Wearing clothes on repeat: I’ve put on the same outfit for the past five days and I don’t think anyone has noticed. Apparently, adults make between 33,000 to 35,000 decisions each day, and no matter how small, each of those decisions requires energy. I guess this is my sad-sack way of conserving just a tiny bit of it. Also, how dirty do my clothes get anyway?

3. Playing with my hair: This is not a healthy habit, especially since I went through a bout of trichotillomania as a kid, but I’m not as self-destructive as I used to be. These days, I just fuss with my hair and look for split ends. And I think if we were all honest with ourselves, we’d have to admit that hair is everything, so I can sort of understand the comfort I get from touching mine.

4. Researching stupidly expensive handbags online: I haven’t figured out the reasons behind this particular obsession beyond existing during late-stage capitalism, but I fall down a pre-owned designer handbag rabbit hole whenever I feel like I can’t cope. It happens very suddenly. Like, one day I’ll see someone carrying a nice bag at the airport, and then—whoosh!—I am suddenly pages deep into pre-owned Céline totes on The Real Real. Yes, I’m aware that I am a marketer’s dream and a middle-aged cliché. It’s ok, though, because I don’t click “buy.”

   

   Sometimes you just gotta look at bunch of designer totes from 2013, you know?

What do you do when you’re laying low? Do you have any survival mechanisms to help get you through the slog of life? 🐌

:) Teresa

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