irrational fears
Whenever I'm walking with my keys in my hand, I'm always on the lookout for drains, sewer grates, and other sorts of crevasses with abysses below. Why? Because the simplest lapse of attention or fumble means that the keys disappear, never to be seen again, and I'm locked out of my car, stranded somewhere, locked out of my house, etc. etc. Especially troubling is the 1-2" gap on the floor as I cross into an elevator. Somehow, that abyss is a more perilous abyss than the sewer grate. Don't get me started about my key and wallet security concerns when leaning over/against a railing over a bridge...
So I put my keys in my pocket all the time, even if it's only for 15 seconds.
I wonder - is this some sort of subconscious mistrust in my own ability to hold on? Or putting too much importance on self-reliance? Or fear of the unknown? Or fear of lack of control? All rhetorical questions, but just what I'm wondering to myself at the moment.
8 comments:
That is the same type of fear I get when I am near a ledge - fear that I might just try hopping off without thinking through the sudden stop at the end.
If only I had a wing suit and parachute...
When I am walking around with keys in my hand, it is because I am taught to do this so that I might use them as a weapon to fend off an attacker. Is that an irrational fear of not?
Keys? You're supposed to fend off an attacker with... keys? What, you're going to do, lock them to something? I think the irrational part of that is that they would be an effective weapon.
Frankly, I'm having a hard time believing that keys on their own are much self-defense. Unless you've got some pepper spray on that keyring. Or maybe a tiny little pistola. In which case the keys are really irrelevant.
I suspect the "keys as brass knuckles" technique is really more about making you FEEL like you are doing something to protect yourself against a potential attacker - and therefore walk a little taller, with more confidence, which makes you seem appear less attackable, thus reduce the likelihood of attack.
There's a small portion of my brain that wants to test this theory - find out if keys in the hand are a good defense against a determined attacker. Not that I want to potentially get a key in the eye OR potentially successfully assault a woman. But asking the question "is it bullshit or not?" of such claims ... that, I like.
Here ya go.... apparently key use is an "advanced" self-defense technique.
http://www.ehow.com/video_4467601_using-keys-as-weapons-womens.html
BTW, I don't find being told that I should always have my keys out so that I am ready for an attacker to be quite as empowering as you suggest. To me, it tells me that I should be afraid of an attack.
Does that mean that "self-defense classes" only foster a culture of fear and that we would be better off if they never existed?
I was driving with a friend who commented about a ready.gov billboard "see look, they always want you to be afraid..." She saw a government conspiracy to control the minds of the people. I saw a message about emergency preparedness, and 1 year after Katrina, it didn't seem out of place.
Fear narrative or being prepared? Depends on observer, or so it seems.
Just like putting my keys in my pocket - maybe it's an irrational fear. Maybe it's just a good idea. It's where my keys go most of the time anyway...
Is it "just being prepared?" Have you now changed your mind on the effectiveness of keys as a weapon?
I, too, have this fear, though it only surfaces when I park in a pool hall parking lot in which the ideal parking spot has a sewer grate about two feet where your front door will be if you park there.
This fear no longer seems irrational. I've fumbled my keys getting into or out of the car some nonzero number of times.
- G
i too am sure the teenage mutant ninja turtles will steal my keys if they are dropped into a deep adn slimy hole
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