“Most folks tiptoe through life only to make it safely to death.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
A woman I run with was telling me about her brother and sister-in-law’s fear that their two school aged children might be kidnapped. I asked if they were particularly wealthy, or if either of them had a job that might make him a prime target for would-be kidnappers. Apparently not. He works in I.T. for a small start-up company. His wife stays at home. But they do live in a village in upmarket Connecticut with many wealthy neighbors who, according to my running partner, are all equally concerned that their own children might be abducted. It all sounded, to my ears anway, rather absurd.
Don’t get me wrong here. I wouldn’t like my kids to get abducted. But I find it rather disturbing to hear that people are so concerned about it that they refuse to let their kids play in their ownback yard without supervision (lest someone jump over the fence and take them) and have to call them at regular intervals whenever they are away from their parents (i.e. at a friends home.) My experience over the years though has shown me that fear breeds fear. And that the conversations this couple have with their neighbors only only incites more fear in them, and they in turn in others. Fear is one of those highly contagious emotions that, left unchecked, can spread like a virus, and create incredible anxiety in those infected by it. Which, by the sound of it, is just what has happened to my friend’s family. [Read more…]