The compression and ejection are followed by a second stage central uplift as a strength-degraded crater floor undergoes a Newtonian rebound (For every action there’s an opposite one). In the third stage, the central uplift then collapses under gravity and modifies the shape of the central part of the uplifted “hole.” This stage might also be characterized by the extrusion of lavas created by the heat a compressive object generates. The principle here is easy to analogize: Boxing is dangerous to brain health because a punch to the head sends energy inward to shake the brain inside the skull. The energy of a big “punch” by an asteroid is so large it generates a penetrating shock wave that heats and melts rock. Look at the moon. Those dark areas on the moon are composed of lava called basalt that was extruded through the fissures caused by impacts. Lava created by some collisions can flow beyond the crater’s boundaries, affecting the surrounding region. Eventually, in the fourth stage the crater takes on a flatter appearance with a subsided central uplift and a “lake” of hardened lava. On Earth erosion by water and land sliding further degrade the shape of the crater.
The surfaces of our psyches are in some ways similar to the surfaces of planets. Like the surfaces of Earth and the other bodies in the Solar System, psyches can suffer emotional impacts that leave their marks that in some people can last lifetimes. Even if you have never been physically assaulted, you have probably at one time or another suffered an impacting insult, an affront to character that at least temporarily affects you deeply. All impacts have the potential to leave some mark, a “cratering” of personality. But unlike bolide impacts on the brittle surfaces of planets and moons, human psyches can be more elastic. That elasticity varies from psyche to psyche, of course, but for the most pliable personalities the last stage of “flattening” occurs quickly, whereas for the most brittle personalities the last stage seems to take a human “eon” to anneal.
As with asteroid-planetary and asteroid-moon collisions, human collisions are usually unexpected, if not by the impactor, then by the impacted. The asteroid of insult, an attack on character, appears “out of nowhere” and is unasked for. But unlike the cratering of brittle planetary and moon surfaces, cratering in psychic well-being doesn’t depend solely on the surface composition and on the size of the impactor. Human cratering depends on the perceptions of the individual.
Some surfaces can take a very large insult without ejecting tears or anger and without showing a cratering of psyche. Human character can be as pliant as a wet sponge and just as elastic. Yet, some characters are brittle. In both kinds of surfaces, the psyche is at least momentarily weakened and cratered and of Newtonian necessity rebounds in some way where the energy of insult is concentrated. Sometimes the rebound rises as high as the insult is deep, but then begins to subside.
Reaction to the impact also reveals the nature of the psyche’s interior. How we handle insult shows the nature of our interior, the “rock” of emotional makeup turned to emotional magma that comes to the surface in an extrusion of fluid feelings. If our psyche is brittle, the melting can run deep. Once on the surface, those fluid feelings can harden for all to see.
Time, of course, works to modify the impact on our lives, to “flatten” the terrain and lessen the Newtonian-like reaction. The emotional wound becomes less visible.
In a Solar System with millions of comets and asteroids, impacts are inevitable, and on a planet with seven billion people insults to character are relatively common. The difference between the two threats is that one occurs on brittle surfaces, and the other occurs on relatively elastic ones. How elastic is the surface of your well-being? How do you respond to the impacts of insults? And, in looking over your life, can you see craters, fissures, ejecta, a central uplift, and lava flows that show where and how hard you’ve been hit?
How fast you go from stage one to stage four defines your character.