Playing the map in front of you.

This past month I read a book called "deep survival" based on research of accidents and deaths and what are the deciding factors that a person will survive. I found in there the mental action of "bending the map" where instead of dealing with the terrain, weather, supplies at hand, an individual deals with the "idealized map" in their mind. Its a way of denying the conditions an individual is in, and can be quite detrimental to survival. I often then try and apply these skills to everyday life and how I handle playing "the cards dealt" or "playing the map" in front of me.

My husband and I have beater cars. No other way to describe them, they have been driven hard and have lots and lots of miles on them due to the nature of my job. I might easily put 700 miles on a car a week. This last month, it was like perfect fail time for each of the vehicles. By the beginning of this week, we had completed four repairs in four weeks. Car-pooling with my husband is a little challenging due to the fact that I usually work 1st shift and he works later. So days I car-pool with him, tend to be very long days for me. This last Tuesday, my husband and I had to run an errand together, and following its completion, I was going into work, so we took both cars. We get to our destination and my husband says "I think there is something wrong with my car, I barely got it here." When we came back out, my husband managed to get the car started, but it only made it about six blocks down the street. The only way I can describe it is due to the stress involved, my brain just shut down. I refused to play the map in front of us, all day. It didn't help that during the course of the day I also talked with three families that were in the process of losing, or working to get their children back in their care through the court systems. By the end of the day, we also had another repair completed on my car, as well, and a very wary husband who gave me lots of space. So to review,  we had a total of 6 repairs in five weeks, and I don't want to even talk about how much money it cost us.  Its amazing how a good night's sleep, and a little space to process what happens can help my frame of mind. My husband and I car-pooled again the next day due to his car not being completed, and as I pulled away from his office, and in the high wind down the interstate, the seal on my back window started to pull away from the car, this time I just laughed due to the ridiculous nature of actually needing another repair, and called my husband to let him know. Next week for repair number 7 in 6 weeks, I will stop by the auto-body shop and see how much they charge.

It is very important though to be in a place mentally that you can play the map in front of you. Denial only endangers your own life, and the lives of people around you, at worst. At best, denial makes for a miserable human being, that no one wants to be around, just ask my husband.