Are you "safe" in this world?

[Vraith]

Psst, Vraith, you mean DotD, not Linna.

crap...of course I do...I don't know why I always get them tangled in my brain...maybe cuz most [most] of their posts have a dulcet tone...or would if typing sounded like anything.

[Fist and Faith]

Yup, I mix them, too.

[aliantha]

You...you religionists!

Hashi's right -- so far, nobody's gotten out of this here alive. The items on my bucket list are pretty much ticked off, other than three trips; the kids are grown; I've got a will; and my chances for grandchildren seem somewhat remote. So while I'm not looking for ways to shuffle off this mortal coil, I'm largely content with where I am right now.

I had a guy once ask me, in dramatic tones, "Are you ready to meet your Maker?" And I basically said, well, the kids will be taken care of and I don't have any big regrets, so yeah, I suppose so. It wasn't exactly the reaction he was looking for.

[Holsety]

*Put a hand on your lap*

Calm down. CALM DOWN.

Aaaah some guy on the internet just put his hand on my lap. Aaaaah!

I had a guy once ask me, in dramatic tones, "Are you ready to meet your Maker?" And I basically said, well, the kids will be taken care of and I don't have any big regrets, so yeah, I suppose so. It wasn't exactly the reaction he was looking for.

Not really as cool, but once I got a fortune cookie that said "if there's anything you need to do before you die, go do it" and I was like "clean up after myself is all" and tossed it.

To me, death as an all out finish is a pretty safe concept to me.

[Avatar]

Oh, I feel safe enough, because I don't go around worrying about it.

Technically, I suppose I'm not actually safe...high crime rates, high murder rates, that sort of thing. Every day might well be the last day of my life.

But I don't wander round thinking "I'm not safe! I'm not safe!"

Even in "safer" places than this, you could still die any time. These things happen. You can't be 100% safe ever. Unless you're dead I guess.

--A

[Linna Heartbooger]

If you're walking along a highway drunk, and you get hit by a semi, your most coherent thought is probably gonna be, "Whuuuuut?"

Just sayin'.

IF you survive the impact. Yeah...person flying like debris over a turn lane and into my lane was quite an end to a very long day at work.

Ummmm, I. am. so. sorry.
I would be very horrified.
When did that happen?

Safety for the most part is an illusion I think, and if we at least accept we're going to die and time is short we can get some shit done.

Seee... this is one of those things I needed to hear.
Now, how to actually put this one in to practice?!
(maybe I'll spend my whole life learning it..)

And yet almost everyone I know feels threatened all the damn time...and the richer/safer/more secure they are, the more threatened they feel.

Yeah... this is one of those things I'm trying to puzzle/boggle through.
I've got a few incomplete models for why this is, but I'm still dissatisfied with those...
I guess one big reason I'm thinking about this is that I know I'm succumbing to this stuff too, if just "on the edges."

Btw, I'm totally honored and delighted to be confused with deer, vraith and Fist!

Gamgee- Wait, what? Being told you likely wouldn't live to see 30?

Menolly- ah...
While I can't identify in some ways... I really do identify with concerns about personal security being tied to the actions I take.
Sometimes my expectations of what will "come back to bite me" are at odds with... all sorts of things.

[Ananda]

I'll answer that I am safe, then, Linna. As safe as you can be with the knowledge that accidents happens and stuffies. We don't even lock our bicycles when we go somewhere or even lock them outside the house and no one steals them.

To the 'everyone dies' crowd... no kidding! But it isn't for dwelling upon. It will happen later and swiftly if you are lucky. But, whenever it comes is not usually under your control unless you are suicidal or a large risk taker in which case you push odds for a sooner death. At least in a place like this.

I've had two people I've been friends with kill themselves, too. One took a lot of drugs on purpose. The other shot himself in the head. What idiots.

I saw this on youtube recently. It was pretty creepy and sad:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FDSdg09df8

[Morning]

I voted yea, because so far life always turned out perfectly balanced for me. I went through a lot of really bad stuff for about half of it, and then the other half came out with luck aplenty. If at 41 and stuck in a hellhole of a country by American standards (Portugal, okay still not Colombia, Mexico and let alone Rwanda) I can say this, even though I'm on red alert mode all the time (I suffer from PTSD) then I don't know how else I could vote...

I am not so certain that death cannot be avoided, a real death I mean. Been reading Daniel Kolak, "I am You", a must have.

[Avatar]

We don't even lock our bicycles when we go somewhere or even lock them outside the house and no one steals them.

--A

[sgt.null]

I have decided not to die. not anytime soon anyway. i think a few centuries on I may change my mind. but likely there will still be things I want to do.

[[Syl]]

I live in the most probable of worlds and, of all the people I know, have the most probable existence. Safe? I'm indestructible!

Or to quote Bravehart: "The Almighty tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're fucked."

[Worm of Despite]

If you're walking along a highway drunk, and you get hit by a semi, your most coherent thought is probably gonna be, "Whuuuuut?"

Just sayin'.

IF you survive the impact. Yeah...person flying like debris over a turn lane and into my lane was quite an end to a very long day at work.

Ummmm, I. am. so. sorry.
I would be very horrified.
When did that happen?

I assure you it was quite an experience. The moment it happened your entire day--everything before it--disappears and your interior world is slapped with a huge reality.

I imagine people in combat experience similar realities to even a higher degree.

It happened February 17, right before midnight. And the day after my birthday.

She was rolling so close and directly in front of me that I had no choice but to keep gong forward with the vehicle or risk swerving or stopping suddenly and causing more damage.

It was so surreal: the moment of seeing a person just tossed from a passing truck. At first I was like, "Is this person jumping from the inside of the vehicle, committing suicide or being forced?" That's the way the truck's toss made it look like: just a standard leap feet first, as if you were leaping from ledge, and then the person rolls into your lane a second later ten feet in front of you. You'd have to be trained properly to figure out what to do by the time you realize what was happening. It was like being struck by lightning in its suddenness and probably even rarer in its unlikelihood. Very freakish in all ways.

Strangely I was more calm than I thought I would be. I returned to the scene, reported all that happened, etc. I suppose working all day at the factory and handling tons of situations where things go wrong had helped my reaction.

[aliantha]

Holy cow -- seriously? That would be horrible. Sorry, LF.

[Worm of Despite]

Holy cow -- seriously? That would be horrible. Sorry, LF.

Yeah. I just feel bad for the person who got hit. She was quite drunk apparently or suicidal to let that semi hit her.

As for me: I will be fine. Thanks for the e-Hug.

[Avatar]

Yeah, safety is relative. Safe from what? It depends.

--A

[Worm of Despite]

I think once we begin getting mauled by a bear, choking, heart attack or whatever else will eventually wrap its gummy lips around us then we begin to realize we were only momentarily safe and hoping we get more moments. All I can say is safety feels endless but sure is illusory once something pokes it.

Safety will go. And the mind will cower at its frailty.

[Linna Heartbooger]

Foul- yeah, I'm kind of speechless; thanks for telling the story, though...

Morning- realizing just how many people don't feel safe really got me thinking..
PTSD and "red alert mode all the time"... would kind of suck, I think.
I don't get "I don't know how else I could vote"... irony?

[Morning]

Contrived irony or mindless courage, yeah Must be something we math people do

[DoctorGamgee]

So yeah, Linna, I was diagnosed with type I diabetes back in the dark ages when we used Pork insulin. Not a good prognosis was given. But that is life. Live and learn.

Now I am basically fearless. Not stupid as in testing fate, but not about to let fear keep me from doing what I want to do.

It is a good way to life.

Doc

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Contrived irony or mindless courage, yeah Must be something we math people do

Being a math person, I second this.