Have you ever noticed how we humans have a lot of instinctive prey-type behaviors? Take, for example, a large room full of nearly 500 empty chairs. As people start to find seats, your introverted individuals will naturally try to sit as far from each other as physically possible. However, as you watch the room fill up, each of those individual human seeds will become the nidus of a growing group. In general, people will sit near other people. Considering the fact that many of these people spent the next several hours not talking to each other, it doesn’t seem to be a social desire. I am inclined to draw the conclusion that we humans don’t want to be on the fringes of the heard. We want to belong. We want to stay as far from predators as possible. Granted; this isn’t true for everyone, but it does seem to be a mostly dominant trait. I would encourage you to look around you at events, gatherings, or even during your daily routine. Try being the person sitting alone. I expect you won’t be for long.
Now for some interesting thoughts about heat stroke. I know. What happened here? How did we get to this topic? Here’s a thought for you. How many people like to be in the sun? How many of us do yard work in the summer, like to spend time hiking, running, kayaking, laying on a beach with alcoholic beverages, or simply have jobs that put us outdoors in inclement weather? I’m willing to bet many of us have found ourselves outside in the heat at some point. Considering that, how do you know when you’re getting too hot or when a friend of yours might be? No; I’m not talking about the other kind of hot. How do you know when it’s dangerous and is there anything you can do to help out? Believe it or not, it’s not too difficult. Despite what many of us may have been taught in the past, heat stroke or dangerous body temperatures doesn’t have to come with the hot dry skin. Many people are still sweating. The real trick is looking at their mental state. People who are in trouble will be confused. They’ll have a hard time walking. They’ll look like they’re drunk. So what can you do for your friend whose skin is burning up and looks intoxicated even though he isn’t? He needs to cool down. If you don’t have access to bags of ice, he’ll get significant benefit from wet skin and moving air. Granted, this works better in places with low humidity, but it works in the tropics as well. Despite what you might think, you really don’t want to dowse him in cold water unless that’s all you have. It’ll mess with the blood flow in his skin and may slow the cooling process. Instead, try using room temp water. It’ll do even better. If you’re lucky enough to have some ice and a bag to put it in, put the bags in his hands. There’s some interesting things going on with blood flow that’ll make these work really well.
In general, if someone is hot; cool them down. If they’re hot and confused, you may not have a lot of time. Cool them faster. The next time you find yourselves overworked in a hot climate, I hope some of this sticks. If you get yourselves cooled, we’ll see each other over the next horizon.