Playing Possum....Is That What You're Doing?

I am a Nature Observer. There's so much that can be learned from watching how Nature does stuff as opposed to how Man does it. 

Being here at Possum Kingdom State Park has me thinking about possums which is pretty normal for a 50 year old guy at 6:30 in the morning. 

We've all heard the expression "Playing Possum" but being the inquisitive sort, I went to my Left Hand guy, Dr. Wikipedia, to learn more and looky what I found. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death#section_1

"Apparent death, colloquially known as playing dead or playing possum, is a behavior observed in a wide range of animals in which they take on the appearance of being dead to an observer."

Sound like anybody you know?

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Possums do this when they feel threatened or in danger. 

Sometimes playing possum is good... It gives you time to back off and assess something that makes you feel uncomfortable and insecure. It has it's place. 

But I see far too many people living their whole life playing possum. 

Everytime they face some new challenge or disturbance in their life, they just go into a state of paralysis until the situation passes. 

They miss the opportunity to face, fight and overcome. 

Maybe Carly had it right in 75. 

Geez - if that's Playing Possum - sign me up!