I have a fear of heights. The more time I spend climbing up the side of mountains, hiking up fire towers, and working in a high rise buildings, the fear diminishes, but still is very much a real fear.
When I was young, I used to be afraid of escalators, and even walking out by a window of a high rise building. None of those things evoke much fear any more. After climbing mountains, I quickly hike up fire towers — even at night, with little fear. I like to look down, and look at the scenery around.
Yet, I still have a fear of heights, particularly of slipping and falling on the edge of a mountain trail or down a rock face. While this fear is rational, to a degree, it does bother me at times, and keep me from getting pictures or enjoying certain sections of a hike as much as I should be.
I guess it’s rational to realize that when a trail follows a potentially deadly 50 feet drop off one foot away, to be a little bit scared. I just wish I felt less concerned about looking off the trail and enjoying the vast scenery that can be seen rather then keeping an eye on the trail.
You can notice the general lack of photographs I have trails that run along the edge of mountains. It’s because I’m just too darn scared to take out the camera.
It seems too often as a society are in denial about how our world works. Our modern, technocratic society often denies us experience and knowledge about how things work. It often covers and hides the evil that lurks in our world.
It is amazing how much of society is devoted to hiding the truths that make up our society. We cover buildings with complicated siding and paint, to deny their function. We build great landfills, farms, and energy producers far away so we don’t have to see or think about them.
I’m sure insiders would argue that technology or morals demand that how our world work be hidden. They will say that we outsiders don’t really understand how things work, and that our misunderstandings of the inside will lead to misguided policy.
We should always be asking how does something work. We should be looking behind the wallboard, and questioning and pushing the insiders to do better. We should try to step out of our comfortable world, and try to do better.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to watch the gay marriage debate in Assembly several times on the computer. Its always fascinating to watch how passionately people will debate an issue that they have no stake in themselves nor do their district has no stake in it. There is no (significant) economic benefit or cost to gay marriage. It doesn’t deprive anybody of their rights or restrict what they can do in their back-40. It really doesn’t do much at all.
So why do people really care? I don’t understand.
The same-sex marriage bill indeed is only a single page long. It simply replaces man and women with person in the definition of marriage in the domestic relations law. It also states that no person can be denied the right of marriage simply because of their gender, and that no church or religious institution must preform any marriage. Not a big deal.
The critics of gay marriage are right in saying that many gay couples engage in behaviour that is quite strange. Yet, there are many other gay couples that are quite happily living together, living the American life like most other Americans. There are certainly gays living in suburbs, gays who own farms and ranches, and gays who live in the city and work for big corporations. Most of them are totally normal except for their choice of a partner.
People often fear what is different. They might even believe that what is different is having a negative impact on their lives. People need to do their own thing, and just ignore what other people are doing. Indeed, it seems the people who complain about the smell of cow shit are no better or worst then those who complain of gay marriage.
