Enjoyed reading your thinking on this, Psych. I think it's now impossible for me to get on a bike without being a little afraid of it, and of course, it's usually when you're afraid of something that it hurts you. So? Bicycling is out of my comfort range right now. I'm still "living life" and all, I think, but I've stepped away from that, just as I have hanging Christmas lights on my home, hanging halfway off the roof.
i do think that there are concessions that we make as we age and balance and flexibility become more of an issue and we have to reexamine what we do and how we are doing it as you have done with both the bike riding and light hanging. there are things i wont do on a bike anymore either. gone are the days of riding over the mountain. not so much for the hills on the way up (a royal pain in the ass these days) but for the free fall on the way down. the body is not one with the bike in the way it was 15 years ago but i will take the bike out to go around the reservoir or on the main road near my home where its pretty flat terrain. mostly these days tho my bike riding is done on the expresso virtual reality bikes at the y. lol. i workout a few days a week on these and usually with a friend. these are very neat machines in that they are interactive sort of like the star trek holodeck. my friend and i race each other on a stretch of ocean drive in miami or the bike track. weve yet to notch it up to the tour de france tho. heh. my worry tho is not when people come up against changing physical limitations. i get that. im not advocating people do foolish things that they cannot do or cannot do any longer. but instead this 24 hour a day assault of fear driven limitations given to us by news organizations in search of ratings that people take on as true or as sedaris points out allow the constant stream of fear to comingle in some freeform and really limiting way. the things that keep us from trying anything. these are the things that make the world a smaller place for us.
There's much to be said for overcoming fear, I know. Sometimes, though, one needs to measure potential pleasure against potential fear/injury and make sure the pleasure is the more significant of the two. Otherwise? Why bother? I didn't attend the 2001 World Series here in my home town, because frankly, I didn't (at the time) feel comfortable in an enclosed place like that, where anyone could bring in any sort of chemical warfare, like anthrax, and open up a vial. Understand -- this was just a couple of months after the tragedy of 9/11, and we still really didn't understand fully (those of us "regular folk") what was going on, or where danger actually lay. For me, at the time... I wouldn't have enjoyed myself there in the stadium right then. Not without a nagging anxiety.
ok this is a great example of what im talking about. i can remember that same fear. hell i was leary of opening up the mail since one of the main post offices in the state was closed because of anthrax. and yet? that threat was totally overblown. we know that now and we might have known it then if the media hadnt gone on the big scare fest. i was listening to a comedian the other day on the comedy channel and he was joking about this. he was speaking about the war in afghanistan. he said something about how we blew up half the country and they sent us the flu. an exaggeration on both ends to be sure but the way that event was catastrophized had everyone in a panic and thats what i see so much of. what if instead of the fear campaign they news people said hey theres some jerk mailing anthrax and describing what it looks like and telling people that if they were to come in contact to go to the doctor and take the antibiotics. instead there was a lot of uncertainty about how this could happen and all of the worst case scenarios. if they hadnt you may have measured the threat differently and gone to the game. the goal of these acts of terror are to paralyze and disrupt normal life and when the media plays into that the terrorists win. right now we are all overly focused on the economy. before that it was the election for two entire years and once this latest crisis passes there will be something else that gets taken and run with. the result of this from what i see is that the media is in essence controlling the population. clearly we can see the media influence on the election and if we look carefully we can see the market changes happen as the news focus changes. all of the talking heads start making their predictions and sure enough the markets move. it ceases to be a reporting of the situation and becomes a creating of the situation. people tune in, ad people get paid, ratings go up and the people are the casulties. i saw tonight that 8 out of 10 people were experiencing psychological trauma as a result of economic fears. it wasnt until bush actually fessed that the economy sucked that things really began to spiral out of control. thats when everything escalated. and now the republicans are stirring it up as the beginning of the 10 elections and the average american turns on the news and reaches for the rolaids.
I enjoyed immensely watching the games on TV instead. If I'd known then what I know now, I might have made a different choice, but I don't regret the choice I made. It's all about calculating risk, I think, and everyone is going to come up with a deduction unique to them, and colored by where they are AT THAT MOMENT.
exactly!
It would seem your friend has the joy of skiing weighed against the fear of dying from it before her now. If she still has that fear when she's skiing, then the skiing isn't going to be as much fun for her as it was before, is it? And aren't her chances of injury increased by that very fear? If she really DID love it, then she may decide she needs to do it again. If I were in your shoes, I think I'd avoid pressing her to ski again, though, and let her come to that place on her own, in her own time frame. JMO.
yeah i am not big on forcing people to do anything. usually i joke with her about this kind of thing and let that roll around in her head to counteract the fear stuff because well some of those fears are really overexaggerated and in humor the silliness becomes more apparent. if the fears werent sort of out there id prolly say nothing at all. but for years she wouldnt go in the ocean in the summer and why? because if the sharks didnt get her the killer jellyfish would. hiking in the woods? feral dog packs and coyotes breeding with wolves creating the super fecoywolog. kayaking? old rusty cars hidden at the bottom of the lake to cut the feet on or marsh grass wrapping around the leg and pulling you under and snakes. we cant forget the snakes. she also is worried about brain cancer from the cell phone, product tampering so all packages must be carefully examined. and all of those things come from her news watching. shes not alone tho. i know a lot of people who are like this. people who wont try anything new and havent for a decade, people who wont get on a plane because it may crash or wont change jobs if they are unhappy or writers that wont submit their writing because it may be rejected or people who wont ask for a raise because they are afraid of a possible no. i think that its the fear drummed into people via cultural arenas like the media that begins to seep into all other areas of life and make us nicely controllable for others.
david vetter the original "bubble boy" had his first tast of freedom shortly before he tragically died. while its never a good idea to try and judge the quality of someones life i cannot imagine life in a bubble. gene therapy has now freed most of the other bubble children around the world giving them something that david could only dream of.
im concerned here in, light of the tragic death of natasha richardson, that we are becoming a society that embraces the bubble more than we embrace life. natasha richardsons death, while tragic, was one of those one in a million flukes. now the talk is of mandatory helmets on the slopes. the next time someone face firsts into a tree will the helmet then extend to the face and then when an arm or leg is broken result in full body armor? life is risk if you do it right, controlled risk, aware risk, balanced risk but risk all the same.
on the phone this morning talking about this with a friend. id taught her to ski this winter. it was a thing of joy to see her normally morose self flying around on the snow and really loving it. id never seen her as happy as those few days this winter spent out on the trails. i said. "i hope that this wont prevent you from continuing to ski?" she said. "i was thinking that way this morning."
the culture of fear that is being developed in this 24 hour a day info thon. its a shame, really.
im remembering a quote from something david sedaris wrote about his sister. its comical and yet i think its really where so many people are today.
"My sister's the type who religiously watches the fear segments of her local eyewitness news broadcasts, retaining nothing but the headline. She remembers that applesauce can kill you but forgets that in order to die, you have to inject it directly into your bloodstream. Pronouncements that cell phone conversations may be picked up by strangers mixes with the reported rise in home burglaries and brain tumors, meaning that as far as shes concerned, all telecommunication is potentially life threatening." Sadaris -Repeat After Me
and that statement humorous in intent, rings true. we are inundated with potential death on the non stop news channels concerning everything in our environment and it occurs that at some time we have to be aware of the pitfalls but continue with life.
Enjoyed reading your thinking on this, Psych.
I still maintain it's a matter of individual "calculated risk" choice, emphasis on "individual." Things which for anyone else might be completely natural and normal, are, for others, fightening feats. I was reminded of this when I looked up at the handiman at my home yesterday standing on one foot on the very top of the step ladder on the uneven ground at the side of my house. I remembered how that was once me, and from much higher heights, actually, hanging and focusing lighting instruments in theatres, atop cherry pickers which sometimes meant leaning so far out, the back wheels didn't touch the ground. I did this all without second thought, flying up and down ladders, as well. Even had a tumble, once, but without injury. I didn't think a thing about it. Later on, as I took spills here and there, bones began to break. My last <knock wood> bad accident injury came from simply falling off a bicycle. A BICYCLE! When I was a kid, I NEVER used the handlebars, but guided with my body only. No helmets, no shin guards, just me flying all over town on my bike. Yeah, sure, plenty of scrapes and bruises along the way, but STILL. I've ridden a bicycle off and on my whole life, and always enjoyed it. But then I started falling off, and for no reason I could isolate. (I now suspect the meds I was on contributed mightily) I had two "hard" falls before the one that broke about five bones around my shoulder and collar bone. I was wearing a helmet, but didn't hit my head, I don't think. After months of physcial therapy, I sort of lost my eagerness to ride my bicycle. I DID buy a new one, because, in part, I thought it important to get back on a bicycle ASAP; it was stolen, I bought another, this time the "old fashioned" kind, with no gears or hand brakes, and rode it a couple of times, but... eh? Wasn't all that much fun for me any more. I think it's now impossible for me to get on a bike without being a little afraid of it, and of course, it's usually when you're afraid of something that it hurts you. So? Bicycling is out of my comfort range right now. I'm still "living life" and all, I think, but I've stepped away from that, just as I have hanging Christmas lights on my home, hanging halfway off the roof.
There's much to be said for overcoming fear, I know. Sometimes, though, one needs to measure potential pleasure against potential fear/injury and make sure the pleasure is the more significant of the two. Otherwise? Why bother? I didn't attend the 2001 World Series here in my home town, because frankly, I didn't (at the time) feel comfortable in an enclosed place like that, where anyone could bring in any sort of chemical warfare, like anthrax, and open up a vial. Understand -- this was just a couple of months after the tragedy of 9/11, and we still really didn't understand fully (those of us "regular folk") what was going on, or where danger actually lay. For me, at the time... I wouldn't have enjoyed myself there in the stadium right then. Not without a nagging anxiety. I enjoyed immensely watching the games on TV instead. If I'd known then what I know now, I might have made a different choice, but I don't regret the choice I made. It's all about calculating risk, I think, and everyone is going to come up with a deduction unique to them, and colored by where they are AT THAT MOMENT.
It would seem your friend has the joy of skiing weighed against the fear of dying from it before her now. If she still has that fear when she's skiing, then the skiing isn't going to be as much fun for her as it was before, is it? And aren't her chances of injury increased by that very fear? If she really DID love it, then she may decide she needs to do it again. If I were in your shoes, I think I'd avoid pressing her to ski again, though, and let her come to that place on her own, in her own time frame. JMO.
david vetter the original "bubble boy" had his first tast of freedom shortly before he tragically died. while its never a good idea to try and judge the quality of someones life i cannot imagine life in a bubble. gene therapy has now freed most of the other bubble children around the world giving them something that david could only dream of.
im concerned here in, light of the tragic death of natasha richardson, that we are becoming a society that embraces the bubble more than we embrace life. natasha richardsons death, while tragic, was one of those one in a million flukes. now the talk is of mandatory helmets on the slopes. the next time someone face firsts into a tree will the helmet then extend to the face and then when an arm or leg is broken result in full body armor? life is risk if you do it right, controlled risk, aware risk, balanced risk but risk all the same.
on the phone this morning talking about this with a friend. id taught her to ski this winter. it was a thing of joy to see her normally morose self flying around on the snow and really loving it. id never seen her as happy as those few days this winter spent out on the trails. i said. "i hope that this wont prevent you from continuing to ski?" she said. "i was thinking that way this morning."
the culture of fear that is being developed in this 24 hour a day info thon. its a shame, really.
im remembering a quote from something david sedaris wrote about his sister. its comical and yet i think its really where so many people are today.
"My sister's the type who religiously watches the fear segments of her local eyewitness news broadcasts, retaining nothing but the headline. She remembers that applesauce can kill you but forgets that in order to die, you have to inject it directly into your bloodstream. Pronouncements that cell phone conversations may be picked up by strangers mixes with the reported rise in home burglaries and brain tumors, meaning that as far as shes concerned, all telecommunication is potentially life threatening." Sadaris -Repeat After Me
and that statement humorous in intent, rings true. we are inundated with potential death on the non stop news channels concerning everything in our environment and it occurs that at some time we have to be aware of the pitfalls but continue with life.
