Survivor's Club

This book is an excellent read, but I wouldn't know as I'm listening to it in my car. BTW still have that POS Saturn VUE.. hoping to trade it in for NEW car April vacation.  Thinking of a nice little hatchback. I'm not a soccer mom, I'll never be a soccer mom, I don't need a kid-transporter.

Anyway, Survivor's Club by Ben Sherwood is an excellent book. It showcases stories of extreme survival and points out how these people managed to live and succeed after their trauma.  They are certain standards for survival, the first is: You are stronger than you know. Cliched yes, but nonetheless true! Not just the stories of mother who lift cars off their children, but pain thresholds are much higher in survival situations than in hospitals. Levels of tolerance increase when your amygdala can communicate the all important "put up or shut down" command to your body.  The second is: None of this is relative.  Meaning that if someone survives a shark attack they are no stronger than someone surviving a rape. I like this philosophy, and I love it even more now that it is backed up with science, research and data. Women who crumble and die after a rape aren't week, they just were not able to rebuild their will to live, either through genetics, society or psychology.  There's a third which is the most important, attitude is everything. If you don't see yourself surviving, you won't. It's a little Eleanor Rooseveltish in it's thought, but hey, that's fine by me, I love that crazy lady!

It's an excellent book and so I went to the website to find out where I sat on the survivor scale, convinced I was in the top 20% of those prepared to survive. I'm in the middle section, grouped with thinkers. Yes, I'm a thinker, I agree with this. But I honestly thought I'd be higher up on the survivor's evolutionary scale. What I was told to work on, building relationships. Yeah, that'll happen! No. I'm very happy with the quite polite tense seething hatred I have with my parents, the awkward we-don't-actually-like-each-other relationship I have with my brother and sister-in-law. I love my husband, he's my best and really only friend. I love that I only talk to people at work or on facebook. I'm NOT SOCIAL. Also, I'm to develop a better relationship with god. Yeah, I'm an atheist. So that's not happening. And I did point out that I'm anti-social, so even if I believed in god, I'm not looking for any more facebook friends. The third was to become more active outside the home. All three are social commands. I'm not doing any. I guess I'll be thoughtful snacks for the zombies.

Sorry Ben, I know I promised to save you and your family. But you're on your own if the zombies attack.