Fear.
Frightening word, yes?
I’m afraid of things.
Snakes.
Terrified of snakes.
It doesn’t need to be a rattlesnake or king cobra. A plain, pedestrian garter snake will suffice.
After all, if a snake can give you a heart attack just by sitting there in the garden having a sun bath and grinning at you, the ability to inject poisonous venom is redundant and also a waste of venom.
This was rather debilitating, as a young person.
(I am no longer young.)
Eventually I decided to get some kind of remote grip on this issue, and forced myself to look at pictures of snakes everyday, just for the exposure.
So there are no more screaming fits, no more fainting and no more throwing up when there is a snake. Yet they are still create fear.
Again, back in younger days, bumps in the night used to cause me fear.
Mr. DeMeer mostly worked nights then, leaving me in a large, Victorian house by myself. There were noises.
Well, there are always noises in large Victorian homes – creaks and floors settling and windows banging and so on.
The solution was clear: we needed a cat.
That way, when there was some unidentifiable commotion in the dark, it was easy to roll over in bed and think “ah...it’s just the cat.” Extremely comforting.
Make no mistake, fear has a real and necessary purpose. It’s part of the human early warning system, triggered by red flags many people might otherwise put off.
Reality is that if you think something is wrong, it probably. And it’s important to take actions to protect yourself and others.
Don’t give into fear, but respect it.
What really burns my buns is people and companies that thrive on selling fear for profit.
Funnily, our home tv has dozens and dozens of television stations in which we have no interest – or at least no mutual interest. I like cooking competitions and Survivor and Mr. DeMeer likes forensic crime programs.
However, one station we both enjoy is simply sodden with fear-mongering commercials.
One particular one is for generators, and it creates fear like it comes out of a box. If your electricity goes out, you have no refrigeration, no air conditioning, (lots of images of storms and such.) Blah, blah blah.
Having survived the 2021 in Princeton, we can firmly say that a generator which is six feet underwater would not render much assistance.
And really (with perhaps some medical equipment necessaries aside) it’s just electricity and it can be lived without for quite some time.
In fact, it’s only been around in common use for about 200 years. What DID people do for the previous 40,000 years?
There are other firms advertising insurance for everything. Your out-of-warranty car needs insurance, your personal data needs insurance. All pitched through a dooms day lens.
For crying out loud, we didn’t insure any of of four children when they were young and now someone is trying to scare me into insuring the washing machine?
Fear is necessary, but it should not be leveraged for profit.
