LIFE EQUALS RISK
Wednesday, Apr. 15, 2020
Not yet comfortable with COVID-19.
Getting there.
Risk-tolerance, fear tolerance, or variation of PTSD – getting used to this …
As children, we were afraid of the dark.
It still gets dark.
But we aren’t afraid.
Some nights are scary, but we sleep, unafraid of morning – safe. Warm.
Then, pandemic moved from bookshelf to brain.
COVID-19 risk hasn’t changed these past two months.
We have.
Day over day, less hand-wringing, more hand washing.
Safer practices, less anxiety – not because of science, or progress in treatment – because we are humans.
Our nature to be afraid, fright-flight – also our nature to be relaxed, happy, and brave.
We mitigate comfort-level with circumstances.
Unsettling, change imposed; we prefer freedom of choice. Adjusting, wrangling our urge to resume work lives, social lives, and community lives – vis-à-vis – acceptance of altered reality for many months, modifying until COVID-19 is solved, treated, or defeated.
I recall when people were freaked-out by microwave ovens, fearing brain damage, cancer. Power lines, cellphones, food-fears – everything could cause cancer.
Were those risks real?
Or did we become less afraid?
Joy of living comes, not from managing or mitigating every potential threat, but from tolerating risk, trusting we can safely navigate the world with ease in our step and a smile on our face.
Risk is factored into every life; brain and belly, in essence, connected, risk-path navigation, becoming more comfortable, being afraid.
Everything we’ve ever taken for granted, risk-laden. Everything we do for work, play, romance, family, business, investment – all risk connections – spokes of our risk-tolerance wheel.
Are we managing risk, mitigating risk, or self-deception/delusion, managing our tolerance?
Life is risk-filled, from beginning to end.
