“Is It Safe To Go Outside?”
As I thought about this topic, I laughed, suddenly recalling a review of Stanley Kubrick’s final movie, “Eyes Wide Shut.” The reviewer said this movie seems to have been written by someone who hasn’t been out of the house for 35 years, to paraphrase. These days it sometimes feels like it would be safer to stay in, doesn’t it? I certainly empathize with people who have agoraphobia.
Intellectually I know there’s nothing to fear outside the relative haven of my home. So why do I breathe a sigh of relief almost every time I return home and close the door behind me? I don’t buy into the propaganda–ish statements made by politicians with agendas. They tell me it’s not safe out there because the world is now full of people who want to do me harm. Huh uh. One thing I know for certain is that we create our own reality according to our beliefs, so if it’s a dangerous world you believe in, a dangerous world is what you’ll experience — it really is that simple.
How do I know? Because I’ve tested this universal law over and over in the living laboratory that is Diane’s daily life. Observation over many years tells me we really do experience what we expect to come our way. Of course, there are mitigating circumstances, and it can also take time — sometimes a lifetime — to manifest what our beliefs dictate. But proof is with us daily if we bother to look around, that life is one big, hairy self-fulfilling prophecy. Or as Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “Believing is seeing.”
So if I’m not afraid, what has kept me in my house for so much of my adult life? Yes, I’m a bit of a hermit. As an only child, aloneness is comfortable for me, not lonely. But I also know part of me wants to be with people to exchange ideas, feel supported, and just enjoy being social, dammit! When I lived in Cleveland I went out almost every weekend, but I had a “best friend” then. For some selfish reason she couldn’t just pick up and move to Asheville in 2000 when I came here.
And, yes, I got married over a year ago, but hey — I married another only child! So far we’ve spent most of our time as a cozy twosome, but we’re both starting to suspect there may be a bigger world out there. There’s a reason that home theaters and computers are so popular — more and more of us are choosing to stay in the house. We don’t even talk on the phone as often, and don’t try to tell me we’ve “replaced” verbal interaction with e-mail or text messaging. If you believe that one, maybe you also equate intimacy with having sex?
The sad thing is, I know in my heart that one of the keys to a world at peace is more of us going out there and mingling. Now there’s a non-threatening word. I’m determined to go out there and do some major mingling. I have a hunch that it could lead to higher-level interaction, even. Ultimately I want to feel “at home” anywhere I happen to be. After all, I know our only true “safety” and “security” comes from becoming congruent — that place where finally, our outsides match our insides. Well, gotta go out for a walk — the rain’s letting up and I’m feeling the need to mingle — if only with a few neighborhood doggies, for starters.