Particularly since 9/11 we have spent untold millions/billions on airport security.
When I was a kid we used to either ride our bike to school, or walk. No one was ever dropped off by their parents, with rare exception.
Now the exception is the bike ride and you will rarely see kids walk to school.
What exactly do we fear? And have we responded in the appropriate way?
When I arrived in the UK for the first time it was two days before the Harrods bomb. I had come to the UK from the USA. On the Monday after the bomb, two days later, I went to Harrods. There, marching on the streets, were thousands of mums with the kids in prams. Making a statement to the IRA. “We will not let fear rule us. We are not going to stay home and live in fear. ”
I loved that about the citizens of London. I loved their defiance.
But we have since chosen to live in fear. We have swallowed the carefully spun untruths of how we must spend all this money on airport security, on spying, on insurance, on protection from…even in the USA on the right to own guns.
Fear props up our banks and financial system. Fear keeps us inside. Fear keeps us running hard to keep up with the costs of living. Fear keeps us under an illusion of safety. Fear has us wrap our children in such levels of protection that they cannot defend themselves. Fear grows a culture of bullies and tyrants, who simply feed on fueling the fear. Fear keeps us in relationships without soul.
Fear and the need for external forms of security have become our prisons.
As I write this, riding the train to Brisbane, I look at the people around me and wonder how many of them are trapped so deeply in their own fear prison? How much richer might their lives be if they said..”hell no….not this life? I want life on my terms.” Like AJ and Melissa Leon have done. Like I have done.
Does that mean I don’t get afraid…oh…I get terrified. But I choose my terror. I choose to not compromise on how I spend my hours. So yes, I may be terrified as to where my next dollar will come.
But rather than cower in the face of fear we learn different levels of protection. We learn self defense. (Once you know how to defend you are less likely to be attacked.) We learn to handle conflict. We become resourceful, creative, resilient. We build community and relationship. We trust our intuition. Most of all though, we learn to go deep inside and trust.
The more I stay in my truth, the more I trust, and the more I trust, the less fear. I am really clear that my journey has always been about getting that when I keep to my truth Universe provides. That the ultimate security is trusting myself and the whole of life.
..this blog post was inspired by the Malaysian Airlines disappearance. As I write this we are nearing two weeks of it being missing. I find it extraordinarily interesting that we spend so much on airport security and spying on people, and yet a whole plane can go missing. Just like that. The implications of this are astounding.
Photo credit: Will Montague via Compfight
