Scary Out There

I have been noticing the spewing of fear into our daily lives. My attention was drawn the other morning as the Today Show had a segment on the dangers of the end of Daylight-Saving Time.  We in Arizona do not pay much attention other than to remember that we are no longer the same time as California, but I was taken aback that they had a list of the horrible things that could happen by simply falling back an hour. If it was not so sad, it would have been laughable. Fearmongering has been happening non-stop for centuries, but has amped up the past two and half years since the beginning of Covid/Corona Virus.  I choose to ignore it. Call me a fatalist but I see no benefit in sitting in a pile of fear.

This is not to say that I am not fearful. We all are. I just choose to not let it run my life. The part that concerns me, however, is the large number of people who believe in it.  I have a number of friends and relatives who are more than happy to point out my folly and the dangers of it.  They have long lists of the things that “could” happen to me.  The pouring on of concerns fascinates me.  I am always happy to listen to the first iteration of warnings, but many seem to think I need a constant reminder that I am wrong and need to be in some sort of bunker safely away from their perceived dangers.  And maybe they are right and those dangers exist, but they are not of much interest to me.

If I were to succumb to their fears or the fears of the Today Show my life would have to come to a screeching halt. The list is long from my acquaintances and were I to follow each warning I would be sitting in my home wrapped in bubble wrap and even then, I might not be “safe.”

Safe for me is a perception. One of my dearest friends got up one morning and sat in her recliner and had a major stroke and subsequentially died. One might have perceived she was “safe” and yet if death is the great arbiter of safety, she was not safe in her own home.

I have never perceived myself as a risk taker, but evidently, I am. I guess all of us are risk takers in our own way and all of us are a little bit Chicken Little. What concerns me more is the constant onslaught which has subliminal consequences to tell us we are not safe because with it comes the risk of giving up our personal intuition, power, and choice.  And that scares me!