Please Don't be Stunned for too long

 It was supposed to be an innocent Halloween party acting stunt in front of an audience. Just to scare everyone one on Halloween night – but not for real.


But it didn’t turn out that way.


I was in the audience and saw the fake noose which an actor put around his neck.


Most of the audience already knew about the hidden body harness that was supposed to hold up the actor when he jumped, so they kept grinning to themselves, saying, “How clever.”


Even when the chair was kicked out from under the actor, most of the audience never flinched…


…until the body harness failed…


…and suddenly the fake hanging became a real one.


The grins on everyone’s faces were replaced with a strange ashen color.


And the look of paralyzing shock was on everyone’s faces.


The paralysis of shock lasts for different amounts of time for different people…


But for the actor who was literally being choked, 


Every second of inaction in the audience meant one giant leap closer to death.


But then suddenly someone at the back of the room dashed towards the stage, knocking over several empty chairs.


He leaped up to the actor and lifted him up, and called for someone else to “Cut the rope, Cut the rope.”


A life was saved that night…


… because someone wasn’t in a paralysis for too many of those long seconds.


Luckily someone quickly recognized the gravity of the situation, saw the truth for what it was, broke free from the automatic paralysis, and took swift action.


In this moment of climate crisis, we are all in that audience now. We all need to quickly recognize the gravity of the situation, and see the reality of the climate crisis for what it is.


We need to quickly recognize that it was a huge mistake to make fossil fuels the headline act at so many stages.


It’s not only conceivable that that mistake could now cost us our lives, it’s also a brutal reality that that mistake will cost us our lives…


…unless we act quickly to try to undo that huge mistake.


We need to break free from our automatic paralysis, and take swift action.


Let’s face it, there’ll be chairs that we’ll have to knock over.


But every second is costly…


…For us.


And now is the time


to run.

(Note: The metaphorical story about the Halloween stunt is fictional, but the climate crisis isn't.)

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