NoJoMo 23:15 in NoJoMo 2023

Three things you would do if you weren’t afraid.

Queso… There is almost nothing I won’t do because I’m afraid. I think the only thing is “jumping out of a plane,” but that has a lot less to do with fear and more to do with, “unless this plane is going down anyway, I just don’t see the point.”

I also sometimes think that “fear” gets confused with “respect” in way too many contexts. Like, am I scared of snakes? No. Not in the slightest. But am I going to try and boop a black mamba’s snoot? Hell to the no. And again, I’m not afraid of snakes, even venomous ones. I respect the fact that (a) this is a wild animal, (b) its natural instinct is to be afraid of me, as not just one of its predators but the apex land predator, (c) it has only its bite, speed, and venom to protect itself from predators, and (d) because of A through C, this snake has developed venom powerful enough to kill me and 18 other people with one bite. I have respect for this animal, I acknowledge that it doesn’t think the way I do, and I understand that it can’t understand that I have no ill will or intent toward it, so I’m not going to disrespect it or myself by being stupid enough to try and touch it. (Even then, if I had the right training, I would only touch it in order to remove it from someone’s yard. Which would necessitate me living in South Africa or the Everglades; the former, I could be persuaded to move to, the latter, never.)

Truly, the thing that stops me from doing most of the things I want to is, um… Uh… Damn, I can’t remember… It’s right on the tip of my tongue… What was it?