Stasis, as we understand it today, implies stability. We find it in words such as homeostasis, wherein the body attempts to stabilize or find balance amid some outside influence or internal pathogen. In ancient Greek, the term also had the connotation of conflict. In order to stabilize or find balance, the body had to battle against the internal or external forces. A person had to make war against something or someone else to take a stand.

Crisis may be seen as an antonym for stasis. In ancient Greek, crisis (krisis) was the turning point in an illness where the person either got better or died from the disease. This turning point was a moment of uncertainty. This uncertainty is what gives crisis its negative connotation today and also what contrasts it with stasis. Whereas stasis is warring against something in order to maintain certainty and solidarity, crisis implies the unknown, the potential good or bad that awaits on the other side. In short, crisis is a point of chaos.  

Similarly to crisis, chaos has a bad reputation. I think this is a misstep, though. Let me use a few examples from martial arts to illustrate why I think so. 

In Judo, the first step in executing a throw is kuzushi, the off-balancing of your opponent to create the opening for your throw. If your opponent is stable and has a good base, you will have less chance of throwing him. You might say he is at a point of stasis. We need to create a crisis or a point of chaos to throw him. Hence, kuzushi.

Another example comes from wrestling. Often, in a takedown situation, we find that the two wrestlers are in a scramble. The scramble is a moment of uncertainty where the wrestler who gets the two points for the takedown is still being determined. It’s a moment of intense action, a flurry of feet and hands. From an outsider’s perspective, it may seem chaotic and disorganized. The wrestlers rely on their instincts and training to take over when they have no time to think about what is happening. The wrestlers have to persevere and keep moving, keep the scramble going, long enough to see an opening or way out (usually by getting their hips higher than their opponent’s).   

In both of these examples, we see a reframing of crisis in a different light. Just as we need to off-balance our opponent to create an opening or initiate a scramble to make a change in a system, a crisis can open possibilities and potentials that we didn’t otherwise have. In our lives, we often live day-to-day, without reflection on the humdrum existence. We don’t stop and think about why we do certain things, or why we don’t do others.

A moment of crisis throws a monkey wrench into our existence, but it also makes us aware of our situation. Marshall McLuhan often used the analogy that a fish doesn’t know it’s wet until you take it out of the water; we often don’t recognize certain patterns, usually negative and habitual, that we continue living in, trapped without a way to exit.

Without the monkey wrench of crisis, we may be warring against a needed change, holding a stasis point that needs to be challenged. We may be too afraid of change and letting our fears stop us from growing.

Ultimately, how we respond to a crisis is a matter of perspective. It can either be a negative thing from which we will not recover, or it can be a chance to change, an opportunity for something different. Yes, just like a scramble, we may not always come out on top in times of crisis. But, in times of crisis, we become open to new opportunities that we might otherwise have missed if there was no jarring to our system, to our stasis.

Do you have a crisis in your life that may be an opportunity? Could you use a little scramble to shake things up? Let me know what you think.

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