Keepers: worst case scenario
For years, a singular terror has lingered in the back of my mind. It's always there, coloring everything I do, say, and think. It's made a home there, painful but comfortable. It's the worse case scenario, comprised of two terrifying words.
What if.
What if it all came tumbling down? What if I'm exposed? What if this life I've built is a house of cards, ready to be toppled by the faintest of breezes?
And then, it came. The worst case scenario was no longer a scenario. Suddenly, it was reality, staring me in the face.
And you know what? It was freeing. The worst case scenario gave me clarity. I know now the nature of the beast, I know the terms of the battle to come, and I know which abilities and skills to I need to draw upon to overcome.
That is a particular kind of freedom: freedom from fear of the unknown. And the thing about the fear of the unknown is that once it becomes known, it withers away.
My keepers
"In the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal." Nowthis tweeted Fred Rogers' Dartmouth commencement speech, which ranks right up there with Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot in the pantheon of awe-inspiring monologues. I'm also watching Won't You Be My Neighbor, a beautifully told reflection on Rogers' life and legacy.
"Hobbes saw societies divided by war and offered a road to peace. Rousseau saw societies divided by inequality and prophesised their downfall." Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau saw the world very differently. Both had a significant impact on Enlightenment thinking, and at first glance, their worldview are polar opposites. The truth—as it usually is—is more nuanced, and much more interesting.
"I am now wondering: What if we could each entertain a different story for a while, one that goes something like this: That we are semi-permanent membranes, bouncing around with infinite possibility and space. That we are each other. That as much as we are stardust, we are also stories." Clare Mulvaney on the revelation that comes when we realize that all anyone wants is to be heard.