Posted on 12.20.19: Running to escape death can look or seem ignoble, and a father’s natural urge to shield his kids from harm is surely as noble as it gets.

Alas, most of us (except for glory-of-the-human-species fellows like Bobby Peru) are genetically inclined to avoid being killed. “Run for your life” is a very strong instinct, and being faced with imminent death tends to bring out the primal. Most of us would hightail it when a mountain of snow is approaching, and I don’t think there’s much to debate here.

Any guy who says “in this horrible situation I would hug my wife and kids in the last few seconds we have before being smothered to death”…anyone who insists they would not try to escape suffocation is almost certainly lying.

Question for Julia Louis Dreyfuss’s character and for that matter her two kids: A huge terrifying avalanche is getting closer and closer and you just sit there? You have legs and leg muscles at your disposal, no? A massive wall of death is about to terminate your future and your reaction is “oh, look at that…nothing to do except watch and wait and hope for the best”?