Although I was a risktaker as a child, I have not knowingly taken physical risks as an adult, at least consciously. I was a speed demon driver, that was the only thing. I regret that greatly. I'm fear-ridden now.
What I have done is repeatedly do things that might give others pause. Like work on Death Row. Or in Super Max prisons. Or unprotected and alone, to work in a number of maximum security prisons. And to be solely responsible to make decisions about others' health and welfare in these settings. But I don't think this counts because I never felt fear or thought about it.
I traveled a lot as a woman alone with a small child in third world countries. Anything could have happened. Once it did. My son got deathly ill in El Salvador. I think his fever rose to 110. There was no adequate medical care. And then we were trapped in Hurricane Mitch. And all of the doctors went to assist the hurricane victims. I had become numb with fear. Luckily, I got him to a first class hotel where there was a doctor available.
This thread is about "danger" but I think about danger as "fear" which is something very different. Because now many mundane and non-dangerous things make me fear ridden. I think I am a very confused person about danger. I used to never see it. Now I see it everywhere.
I think this is a very interesting thread to think about. I think the most dangerous things we expose ourselves to, we may be unaware of. They have not risen to consciousness. Even physically dangerous things. They may never even rise to consciousness. And the idea of risk changes over time. When I was a kid we all rode bikes and road flexi's head first without helmets. Mothers never thought one minute about brain injury.
