Risk-Taking

I posted a poem on my LJ blog a few minutes ago, but it, and the article in The Atlantic that inspired it got me thinking once more about how we seem to have become a risk-averse country and why I am not, or am no longer risk averse.

It comes down to this.

Life. Is. Risky.
Embrace the Risk.

Forget terrorists and criminals, other drivers, smoke and fire, floods, and all the things we think we've protected ourselves from, with border security, seat belts, police, fire fighters, smoke detectors, insurance, medicine, etc. It goes back to the Cosmo Moment.

When the doctors started talking about meds that would lower the risk of a cardiac dissection (not prevent it), I started realizing it was all about risk management, and that got me thinking about how much we emphasize safety and the price we pay for emphasis. I'd rather be free than safe.

And part of being free means taking risks. That's one reason why my daughter went to India as a high school junior with my blessing--it was a huge risk for her in all kinds of ways, but she knew it would change her life (and it did). For myself--I submit manuscripts--believe me, the failure of rejection is a very real condition for a writer, but if you don't submit, you certainly never will be published. Mind you, I'm not running back into a burning building for a kitten, but I do intend to go for a ride in a glider one of these days (although I don't think I've got the guts to jump out of a plane and skydive).

I don't worry about playing it safe because I know there is no such thing as 100 percent safety. I'd rather Live.

Tall teens

The thing I keep coming back to when I think about Marfan is how, even when I didn't know I had it, it shaped my life. By making me tall, skinny, and flat-chested in a world of short curvey girls, I had to learn how to handle sticking out early on. I was so much taller than almost every boy in my class that I figured I no one was ever going to be interested in me, and generally they weren't. So I did other things, like read and read and read (no video games in the mid-1970s) and babysit and earn money.

I guess that's why it was so interesting for me to create a contemporary character for whom being tall was an asset, which I think it is these days. There may still be a whole raft of body issues out there, but being tall is no longer the problem it was "back in the day." Or at least I don't think it is. I see so many college students who are 5'10" or over, and their clothes fit and definitely aren't homemade. But I wonder what it's like for them in junior high. Any thoughts?

A Dog's Life

I was watching the vlogbrothers post this morning, and wham--there it was, about a minute in: "A three-legged dog is the same amount of happy as a four-legged dog." Count me as a three-legged dog. Sometimes you have to make accommodations, and you may end up running at the end of the pack, but the important thing is to run and fetch and do all the things you love.