The outside looking in.

Its amazing.. how many times i say “Its amazing..” but i guess i’m just learning to be amazed by the world around me; and i’m noticing just how unique everyones life experience really is.

For this ‘Its amazing’ post i touch on the subject of fear. For as long as i’ve had this journal i’ve touched on how much fear controls and continues to control some of my actions. Thankfully the hold this tricky mistress has on me is not as strong as it once was, and this transition for me gives me a different perspective on how i see other people. I’m awed by how much fear there is in the world, and how much people cower to its bluff.

Bluff.. how can fear be a bluff you say? well i guess my current viewpoint on the world situation can be illustrated in a series of shows done by penn and teller, “Bullshit” here is the topic of one of the episodes

”
Hucksters are tapping into our hysteria over our personal safety to make big bucks. We’re being told that, in order to keep us safe, we need everything from anti-terrorism gas masks to paper toilet seat covers. Crime rates are going down, not up. You’re four times more likely to get struck by lightning than to be violently killed at school. And, once and for all, cell phones don’t give you cancer!”

We are letting fear take over much more than our lives, its taking away our freedom. Not to say that there arent things out there to be afraid of; but thats just a part of life. You really could die any minute and you should take precautions; but there is a limit to the extent you need to go to protect yourself and your children. I see so many young adults who have grown up with the generation of overprotective, overzelious, and overly anxious parents. honestly, its a sad sad state. They get to college unprepared for what the world really is, and their viewpoints on the world are so skewed that they sometimes just cease to function. Many of them, because of the sheltered life they lead, rebell completely and toss caution to the wind; What happened to balance in parenting? what happened to letting a child learn the consequences of their actions, what happened to learning to fend for themselves, to gain a sense of real danger versus an overall fear of all that is around them.

People seem so bent on protecting themselves from “The man” from ‘Terrorists” from “Gangs” and just about everyone else who populates the world. They spend all their time trying to learn to prevent anything and everything from happening that they forget the one thing that will help them the most; what to do when the shit DOES hit the fan; cuz no matter how much prep you do, or how much you lock yourself away.. bad things will happen. Those are the moments that make great men and women, those are the moments when people should shine the most; Instead, i’m afraid that these will be the moments when these up and coming generations will; cower in the shadows..