top of page
Writer's pictureJC Summars

Carjacking vs Heartjacking

As the date to twist off from life as an employee to devote all of my time, energy and resources on the journey of self-employment approached, I was making the long commute from studio to office before dawn one cold, winter morning and stopped at an intersection in a town along my route to wait for the light to go green when a stranger runs up to the passenger side of my vehicle and begins aggressively trying to open the door. It was locked. I keep all doors locked when driving anywhere, especially when driving through populated areas. The stranger looked at me, wild-eyed and slapped his hand against the window. He said nothing, just tried to get inside without explanation of any kind.


Without hesitation I floored it, blasting through the red light and continued on my way to work. As I sped away, I heard the stranger cry out "Noooo!" in a desperate tone of voice. I wondered, briefly, if I had run over his foot when I goosed it, and decided I didn't care if I had. It made no difference to me whether his reasons for trying to open the door were legitimate or not. No one presumes privilege to enter my vehicle, home, or even my personal space uninvited. I'm pretty sure I avoided being carjacked that morning. If the carjacking had been successful, I most likely would have been injured or killed and many joys experienced over the next twelve years of my self-employment journey would have never happened.


I can say the same for multiple heartjackings I have survived in life, perpetrated by people claiming to care deeply for me. By comparison, a carjacking's straightforward, rapidly escalating violation of space is easy to detect and take action to avoid. Heartjackings are much more subtle and cruel, planned and executed with gradually applied, ruthless stealth and cunning over longer periods of time–very hard to detect until it's almost too late.


I've survived only one carjacking attempt and way too many heartjackings in life so far, and the only sure way I know of to continue doing so is to trust no one for any reason.


Ever.

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page