Fear and Fear Mongering

This was amazing.  Ollie our 2 yr bundle of joy grandson at about 7 pm went and got his shoes on and wanted to go out. We thought okay let's go, so we headed off to the nearest McDonald's play palace. At first Ollie was timid about the play structure and wanted us to go with him and climb.

Then a little girl guided Ollie up the climbing area to the third level and then the next thing we know he is going down the slide. We were so excited and proud of Ollie until I heard my mother's voice inside my head. All my childhood fears came flooding back. The voice saying it's too high, it's unsafe, you will fall and hurt yourself.

Thankfully, this fear only lasted a few seconds as I saw Ollie come down the slide and scamper back up to it all again. We were enthusiastically cheering him on. When he came down the slide for the 10th time he had the biggest smile on his face. Came and gave us a big hug before going back for another climb and slide

No fear, just youthful exuberance. I firmly believe that positive role modelling and words have a lasting effect and if I showed fear in my voice or expression Ollie would have picked up on that and displayed fear and worry. Because I didn't he was able to conquer and explore freely.

Fear monger in serves no purpose in society. Governments are very good at promoting fear among the populace. Who can ever forget Ari Fleischers famous words in the weeks after 9/11 " You're either with us or against us". Another example is in grade school seeing a film called " Mechanized Death". It showed gruesome effects of car accidents. It was trying to teach us respect about bus and car safety.  I remember walking out halfway through along with about half the class. The legalization of pot in Canada will literally go to pot. The building of a drug treatment recovery centre in a residential area will increase crime in that area.

Depression and anxiety leave  you more suspectible and less resilient to fear and fear mongering. I certainly have felt the effects of this. As I watched my grandson I was filled with wonderment and great joy. I was also a little jealous that he was fortunate enough to still have sense of adventure and wonderment and not learned how to fear yet. It makes me wish more of us can be childlike and have a sense of whimsy.