On your ‘qualities’ needs list, where is security? Obviously the answer is related to how secure you feel? And if you respond with… it depends on the subject, that’s a legitimate reply. But, for yourself, as an overall analysis – how secure are you? Obviously if you don’t feel secure – safe, then this becomes a higher priority. If you do feel ‘safe’ then you don’t particularly think about this. Security though is more than mere safety from outside threats, it also means, according to Webster, freedom from fear or anxiety. And this last definition typically results in a much higher ranking.
When we consider security, we discover that much of this is intangible rather than the tangible aspects. When we look at the intangible areas we must also look at what we place our trust in to keep us safe. And now the issue of security begins to be complicated. It’s the interconnectiveness that makes for complication and this defines ‘secure’. There is always a minimum level of ‘safe’ that has to exist for us to be able to live and not spend all our energy on trying to create a safety net.
Our level of security forms our foundation. The more secure we feel, the more we are embolden to risk. Without a safe fallback position, our risk becomes constrained. The balance between safe and risky is always tenuous… but it does add spice and adventure. You really can’t live your life on only one side of this teeter totter. Everyone needs times of both.
Safe and secure is a state of mind as much as it is a state of being and it is always relative and individualized. But this doesn’t make the issue of security any less important. Everyone needs to be able to ‘feel’ secure from outside threats while realizing that they always exist. We tend to make a form of ‘peace treaty’ with our idealized safe and the acceptable level of safe. ‘Safe’ allows us a freedom to be and do.
…but, what do you think? what do you believe
