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FEAR

 

During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt told the American people that  they had nothing to fear except fear itself.  Today things are different.  A new culture of fear runs rampant in western democracies, and politicians who should be telling people to not be afraid are using fear to manipulate and control the populace.  Something is wrong with this picture, and I'll explain why.

I have a healthy respect for sharks when they are in feeding frenzy, and if someone is spear fishing, I get out of the water, but I'm not afraid.  I'm simply using my God-given common sense.  I know it's not difficult to stay out of harms way when I make a visit to Shark Land.  Certain types of behavior on my part may create aggressive behavior on a shark's part.  Nevertheless, I shouldn't blame sharks for their aggressive behavior, and instead, I should stop doing things that make them become aggressive.  It would be stupid for me to do things that create aggression, and then expect sharks to remain docile and disinterested.  The reason I'm not afraid of sharks is because I don't do things that place me at risk for attacks by sharks.

 

I lived outside the USA for a quarter of a century, and sixteen of those years were in the Middle East.  During all those years I wasn't afraid.  There was no reason to be afraid because I didn't engage in behavior that placed me at risk.  Innumerable times fearful people have told me how dangerous it was to live in the Middle East, how perilous it was to sail through the Malacca Straits, and how sharks wanted to take me out to dinner, and they are right.  Half-truths and quarter-truths are the currency of fearful minds.  The Middle East is dangerous in specific small restricted areas, and the same is true in Miami and New York.  I wouldn't go into a Seven-Eleven convenience store after ten o'clock at night anywhere in the USA.  I know of people who died in a convenience store at night.  The last time I checked, 35,000 people were killed with guns in America in a single year.  Homegrown violence in America is appalling.   Do you  remember Columbine?  So what is more dangerous, living in the Middle East or in Middle America?  The answer is that both are dangerous if you engage in behaviors putting you at risk.  Even with the handgun carnage that happens every day in America, I'm not afraid to live in America because I know how to stay out of harms way.

I sailed up the Red Sea for two months and had an enjoyable trip, and I would like to do it again.  The Red Sea has wonderful diving, and good people live in all the countries around its shores.  Everywhere I go in the world, 98 percent of the people are good honest citizens, and there is nothing to fear from them.  I have traveled extensively in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Oman, the Emirates, and Israel, and I have always been treated with respect.  Without exception, the only time I have been treated rudely was in large cities by citified folks who were in a hurry, and who are rude to everyone, not just me.

 

Every place I visit on planet earth is extremely dangerous when I do things that put me in harms way.  At the same time, every place is extremely safe, and there is nothing to fear when I turn on my brain and use it.  That's why God gave me a brain and programmed it with common sense.  When I turn on my brain, I can go almost anywhere I want without fear springing up in my heart. 

I'm not immune to fear, and I'm not a brave person, but at the same time, I don't let fear rule my life.  I sailed around the world for eleven years on my yacht and traveled where many people fear to go.  I discovered that Franklin Roosevelt was right.  The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

In spite of sharks and their rows of fearful teeth, life still is good.

 

Please excuse me now.  I'm going for a swim.


 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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This web site is a companion to Outback and Beyond.com.

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