I’ve been thinking a lot about security lately. In May, I took a two-week trip to Alaska, part of it traveling alone. I stuck pretty much to the beaten path, not venturing into the “back-country” at all. However, being in such a wild place gives you pause. In country that produces moose in the middle of its largest city, and more bears than humans in some areas, safety and security seem precarious at best.
Most of us seek security as if it were oxygen—necessary for life. We buy safe cars with airbags and anti-lock brakes; get jobs with good salaries, benefits and opportunities for advancement; live in gated communities or neighborhoods with low crime rates. We lock our houses, our cars, our bikes and even our gym lockers for fear that someone might steal what—our sweaty socks and t-shirts? We are taught early to keep a close eye on our possessions, save for retirement, buy a lot of insurance, wear our seatbelts and do everything we can to stave off disaster. Some of us even eat right and exercise regularly—but let’s not get carried away!
Then something happens that jolts our sense of security to the very core—someone we know is killed in a car accident, planes fly into buildings on American soil, a fire or flood destroys everything we have worked so hard for. For me it was a cancer diagnosis. Facing our own mortality has a way of making us realize quickly that security is just an illusion. That “safe” job and all the insurance in the world can’t protect us from everything.
My diagnosis gave me the courage to quit my job and do something different. I’m sure it was the same for many hurricane Katrina survivors. Once they were displaced and had lost everything, it was somehow easier to take the risk of starting over somewhere else. Having our sense of security threatened can send us in either of two directions: Either cocooning quietly in a corner to regain that illusive sense of safety we used to feel or barreling out into the world which is full of risks that we choose to face head on. The risks will be there whether we are minding your own business at home or living life fully and trying new things. Every 14 minutes, a fatal injury occurs in someone’s home. Might as well get out there.
