Fears and Interests
There was a heck of a thunderstorm here on Sunday. Now, I have kind of a love-hate relationship with thunderstorms - I grew up in Iowa, where thunderstorms are not only common, but sometimes mean tornadoes. Granted, Iowa tornadoes aren't the monster F4 and F5s that, say, Oklahoma gets, but they can still do a lot of damage, and, frankly, if it hits your house, does it really matter what it ranks on the scale? Still, my intellectual nature prompted me to learn a lot about storms, and that helped with the tornado part (after all, if one goes to the basement and hides under a table, one is likely to be just fine...at least with the non F-eek tornadoes Iowa gets), but not so much with the lightning part - that can get you right in your house. Still, I both love a good thunderstorm (when indoors where it's safer) and worry a little about being struck by lightning.
Anyway, Sunday's thunderstorm got me to thinking about how many of my interests are related to my fears. I am one of those people who catches every episode of Seconds from Disaster and Air Emergency, not to mention any other real disaster special (I have no interest in fictional disasters, only real ones). I can tell you what caused "Galloping Gerdie" to collapse, and the Silver Bridge, and the skywalks in the Kansas City Hyatt Regency, and what the NTSB knows about the fire on Air Canada 797, the crash of American Airlines 191, United 232...I could go on for some time. I do fear disasters, but my interest in them actually makes them less frightening because I know how many things have to go wrong before there is a disaster. As with thunderstorms, knowledge eases fears. (Though I do have a completely irrational issue with skyscrapers and refuse to live anywhere taller than 3 or 4 stories, and even then, I don't want my apartment higher than the second floor. And, in my opinion, cruise ships are high-rises that can sink as well as catching fire or collapsing. But at least I know those are irrational issues and make about as much sense as the fact that airplanes don't set off my acrophobia or claustrophobia.)
I also watch true crime shows and was once a criminal justice major. Again, understanding the real dangers (you're most likely to be murdered by someone you know, and the same goes for most violent crimes) helps make the world seem less scary. I know my neighborhood, I'm aware, and I'll go out at night without a second thought. I know when I am taking risks and sometimes I do choose to take them because I don't want to live in fear.
Speaking of living in fear, I am not particularly worried about terrorism and don't feel like 9/11 changed anything. There was a risk of terrorism before 9/11 and that risk didn't get any bigger after 9/11 (never mind that existing rules should have prevented 9/11 - knives with locking blades were already not allowed). Of course, it's the knowledge I have about the world that defuses the terrorism hysteria. Sorry, several planes have been blown up by criminals in the U.S., an angry Fed-Ex employee tried to hijack a Fed-Ex plane and crash it into headquarters, there was that little matter of Oklahoma City, not to mention the first attempt to destroy the World Trade Center...what was supposed to have changed, again? But these are rare occurences and genuine accidents are far more likely. And death of natural cases even more likely. If we were going to be rational, a cheeseburger would be scarier than flying.
But, back to my original thought, I wonder if it's human nature to be interested in the things that we fear or might fear. If not, perhaps it should be, since knowledge is a pretty darn good antidote to fear. Barring the occasional completely irrational issue which nothing much helps. I'd say my high-rise issues are merely the intersection of my phobias, which are inherently irrational and not so responsive to knowledge. Then again, I have no reason to take a cruise or live in a high-rise, so I'm not very inspired to deal with that issue, either.