Risk, Fear And Consequences

"According to a report in "The Onion," behavioral scientists in Chicago have proved that many people are in fact not entitled to their opinions. "On topics from evolution to immigration reform, we found that 38 percent of the opinions people expressed were so off-base and ill-informed that they actually hurt society by being voiced," said one researcher. I'm betting, however, that only a small proportion of these unfounded beliefs and spurious theories will originate from Cancerians in the coming weeks. Your tribe is likely to be more scrupulous in your data-gathering and more rigorous in your reasoning than the rest of the population. In fact, I suggest you regard yourself as a role model whose job it is to demonstrate the beauty of thinking deeply."

Reading my horoscope from Free Will Astrology(old hippie guy) has set me on a not so wreckless course of...Affirming to myself it's OK to think deep. (It deserves a link, but linking is not linking at this juncture)



"Fear is a sickness. It will crawl into the soul of anyone who engages it."
Flint Sky, Father of Jaguar Paw in the movie Apocalypto

"The difference between a fear and a consequence is acceptance. A fear is an outcome you resist. A consequence is an outcome you accept"
Steve Pavlina

"Who cares what the neighbors say, they're gonna talk about us anyway."
From The New York Dolls "Running Around"

My mind does wonder. I often think...Allot of people let fear run their life. They will not take action out of fear of change, fear that they will fail, or someone will think that they failed. Someone once said to me "people are 'right' because they are afraid", implying that someone did something because they didn't want to be "wrong" in someone else's eyes or to prove someone right. People will not make a positive move because it will cause change, preferring mediocrity, and mediocrity is spiritual retrograde. I seen the Iraqi's do this on a daily basis, then, turn and live in the moment to sink back into their gloom.

I can't count the number of times my parents, or some leader in the Army...Or myself saying to someone, you have to accept the consequences of your actions. This was usually done after some action that was...Let's say, negative. Yet, there are consequences to positive actions as well. A popular saying amongst my fellow Rangers was, "there is no action without a reaction". It's natural law. Now let's look at the definition of consequences. "Something that follows from an action or condition; effect", from the American Heritage Dictionary. It didn't say anything bad.

The truth is, I do not stand here high and mighty on my soap box. I've been guilty of this too. Now less often. It has shaped my thinking, and I'm not often understood. People sometimes don't know what to make of me. Yet, if your going to be a freedom fighter, you need to be free. So this is an explanation in hopes that it will benefit the masses, that's you'l.

This is not a complete post. You can see when I started writing it, and then publish it. It's a collection of thoughts and qoutes put together a little bit at a time.

The following I got from Robert Burney, I've come across his web a few times over the years, and find what he say's intrigueing. The qoute below is his twist on Emerson's Risk.

Risking
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To Love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope it to risk despair.

To try it to risk failure.

But, risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing at all.

The person who risks nothing still does not avoid suffering and sorrow because suffering and sorrow are an unavoidable part of life.

What they avoid by not taking risks it the opportunity to learn, feel, change, grow, Love, live.

Chained by their certitudes, they are a slave. The have forfeited their freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

Someone sent an e-mail to let me know that this poem was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I found out that there were a couple of words missing from one line - this color above. Had I known it was by Emerson I probably wouldn't have made a change in it. When I ran across it as an anonymous work years ago, I did a slight adaptation because I thought one of the lines was shaming - and I do not think it is possible to avoid suffering and sorrow. Here is the last part of the poem as is it credited to Emerson with the text that is different from the one above that I have had posted here in that other color.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing...has nothing..is nothing.

You may avoid suffering and sorrow,

but you simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love...live.

Chained by your certitudes, you are a slave; you have forfeited freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

by Ralph Waldo Emerson


Now, The Cult's "Rise"




Simply,
The Appalachianist