840: Agoraphobia

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Agoraphobia by Natasha Sajé. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, guest host Jason Schneiderman writes… “I didn’t learn to drive until I was twenty-seven. It’s not because I’m a New Yorker—I finished High School in Maryland, and it’s not because I had a principled opposition to fossil fuels, though I wish I could say it was. It’s because I was in a car accident when I was seventeen. I didn’t learn to drive not because I was afraid of driving, but because I was afraid of what could go wrong if I drove. It took me another ten years to face my fears. Finally, like the subjects of today’s poem, I realized I was living a smaller life because I was afraid.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode is courtesy of the fantastic poet, Jason Snyderman.
0:06.0	Hang tight, and I'll be back on March 27th.
0:15.4	I am Jason Snyderman, and myth is the slowdown.
0:30.0	I didn't learn to drive until I was 27.
0:33.5	It's not because I'm a New Yorker, I finished high school in Maryland,
0:37.4	and it's not because I had a principled opposition to fossil fuels,
0:41.0	though I wish I could say it was.
0:44.1	It's because I was in a car accident when I was 17.
0:48.8	My friend Amy was driving us to school and I realized that we were going to hit the other car.
0:54.9	I didn't have a profound thought or think of my loved ones.
0:58.4	The words that formed in my brain were stunningly banal.
1:03.3	We're going to be late for physics.
1:06.5	We missed physics class entirely, spending most of that day in a police station,
1:12.0	filing reports, and talking to her parents, and my parents, and the parents of the other driver.
1:19.2	I made intellectual sense of the event.
1:22.8	The accident wasn't serious. It was at a slow speed.
1:26.4	We weren't injured. We hadn't been in a lot of danger.
1:29.8	But at the police station and after,
1:32.4	in conversations about insurance and money and repairs and responsibility,
1:38.0	I just knew that I wouldn't be able to handle the aftermath
1:42.4	the way Amy seemed completely equipped to do, at least from the outside.
1:48.2	I didn't learn to drive, not because I was afraid of driving,
	...

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