Thursday, January 24, 2008

Panic Attack

"The sense of exposure is central to the experience: isolated, cut off, surrounded by hostile space, you are suddenly without connections, without stability, with nothing to hold you upright or in place; a dizzying, sickening unreality takes possession of you; you are threatened by a complete loss of identity, a sense of utter fraudulence; you have no right to be here, now, inhabiting this body, dressed in this way; you are a nothing, and 'nothing' is quite literally what you feel you are about to become. The overwhelming reaction to finding yourself in this situation is the need to flee, to find refuge in some 'safe haven' like your home or your car, anywhere protected from the unremitting hostility of public space."

This exactly captures an experience which is no more bearable, believe me, when it happens to a priest in a pulpit.

1 comment:

Sue said...

Oh, yuk :(

That sounds absolutely horrible. And no, I imagine it would be much, much worse for a priest in a pulpit.