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We all yearn for
safety and security to some extent or another. We want the security
of a regular paycheck that will meet our financial needs; we want the
safety of a nice home that will keep us warm in the winter and safe from
the elements and the bad people of the world. We want our children
to be safe and sound, and we want to protect them from anything that may
harm them. There's nothing wrong with safety per se: it's a
typical human trait to want it, and when we are safe, we're free to focus
our energies on other aspects of our lives. We're able to give more
to our jobs and more time to activities that we enjoy. So how can
something as basic as safety turn into an obstacle to living a full life?
That's easy and
obvious--when safety develops into complacency and creates in us a sense
of boredom, that's when we're facing a struggle with the very facet of our
lives that we've strived so hard to achieve.
In my
experiences living in Europe and the United States, I've noticed time and
again that in the United States we take far more risks and we face far
more obstacles than do our neighbors to the east, especially in the
western European countries. But we also offer far more opportunities
for risk-taking, for putting aside our personal safety and comfort in
order to strike out and try something new and different, whereas the
European countries have such strong social programs that few people ever
reach a point at which they have to strike out and try something
new.
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That's the basic reason why in Germany, you'll hear mostly
American and British music on the charts, why in Switzerland and Spain
you'll see so many McDonald's and Burger Kings, why in France and Sweden
you'll see so many American films in the theaters. For better or
worse, here in America we offer the opportunity to succeed to the
risk-takers, and it pays off in a culture that continues to be dynamic and
ever-changing.
How many times
have you read the story of the man or woman who had worked in the same
place for twenty years, only to be laid off when the company is sold out
or goes under? For many of these people, this is the best thing that
ever happened to them: their new-found lack of security stimulated
them to create their own jobs or companies, or to find higher-paying jobs
in related fields with much higher job satisfaction. While they were
safely entrenched in their old jobs, they had no motivation at all to
stretch their limits or further their boundaries, but once they were on
their own, they found that their creativity and resourcefulness were put
to the test, and came through.
For others, such
a change is a disaster, which is a shame, but hardly justifiable in the
world of today. We can't sit around and mope about what has been; we
need to forge our tomorrows out of the raw materials of today.
I've taught at
many different colleges, and one of them stands out in my mind as
epitomizing the problem with safety. It's a wonderful school
academically--consistently ranked very highly in national and regional
rankings--but there's very little life there. While they bring in
many outside artists to perform there, there's very little creativity on
the campus among the students. Art and dance and music and other
creative outlets are there, but they're hardly encouraged, except by those
few faculty members who are involved in them. When I talked to my
students, they complained about the lack of life on campus, and most of
them ended up going home on weekends, for there was nothing to do at
school. I heard several references to the campus as a "giant
womb," a place where parents could send their kids and know that they
were safe and weren't going to be subverted.
At other
colleges, though, I haven't seen that degree of safety, and I've seen a
great deal more creativity and fire and will to succeed in the
students. They have to work towards safety, and their work shows an
inspiration that I rarely saw at the other school. They knew that
opportunities were out there, but they knew they'd have to work to reach
them. At the other school, the parents were paying a hefty tuition
to guarantee their kids success and a degree from a highly regarded
school, but the kids were getting nothing more than a safety guaranteed by
a checkbook. They were learning no survival skills, and they were
pushed to no limits other than turning in papers on time and getting their
reading done and performing well on tests.
I know that the
times in my life when I've struggled have been the most creative and the
most beneficial. I wrote more poetry when I was living on $200 a
month in Spain than I ever have when I've been earning a decent paycheck
and living in a nice home. I've been harmed when I've taken
risks--of course. But in that harm has been a wonderful lesson or
two each time, and I learned a little bit more about life and success and
being happy by taking a risk and failing than I ever would have by
continuing with the status quo.
There's nothing
inherently wrong with safety, and it's a wonderful goal for most of us,
but we shouldn't let safety turn us into complacent beings, bored people
who think we have to find excitement in things like drugs or alcohol or
partners other than their spouses. You can keep your life dynamic if
you search out risks worth taking, changes worth making, new challenges
worth facing.
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