Risk-Taking

It has been gradually dawning upon me that since becoming a parent, there has been a massive change in how I perceive risk and danger. Quite a few people may well be saying here..."Duh, about time", because in truth, I can trace the onset of an increase in anxiety about this sort of issue to the very first day I realised I was pregnant with my first child...ie: quite some time ago.

At this time, and subsequently, it has seemed to me that whilst it was OK personally to make the choice to face life and all it's attendent risks, and that in fact this could be variously exhilarating, mind expanding, emboldening, and a source of hilarity, and often all four at once, it was hugely presumptious to ask another human to do this. And since there are so many innumerable threats to life on earth, how could I possibly justify creating another life whose annihilation is almost 100% certain?

Without really directly addressing this issue, and therefore failing to solve it, I became unconsciously deeply afraid of dangers and routinely attempted to reduce risk-taking behaviour to a minimum.

Again the response to this should be "Duh". Given that life has been generated, and given that risk is inherent in this creation, why not have a better attitude towards dealing with risk? I should liberate that long captive risk-taking animal within me and help to make sure that this animal is also free within my children.

How best to do this? For me it means recapturing the essence of not caring too much about the self, to see the bigger picture, to enjoy the risk, to delight in danger, to seize life by the scruff of the neck and to relish it, even if this means relishing it for the risks and pain that it offers. It means putting a stop to worrying about the responsibility of having generated people who will have to face risk, and instead help them to acquire whatever traits they most desire in order to face life's dangers.