Goood morning ... PAIN!

I must have slept all wrong because I woke up with my left shoulder & neck all seized up. Eventually crawled out of bed (ironically still a bit earlier than 'usual'), have now had a hot shower, breakfast and painkillers (not aided by a sore throat I expect I picked up on Friday).

Dreading opening email based on end-of-day panic yesterday.

Knives are topical

I used to secretly carry a knife, a fairly big one. I was young and, not stupid but not mature enough to be thinking past the comfort it provided. It was a defence of sorts but rationally I was never going to be in a situation where I would need to defend myself with it. Rationality can be in short supply when you are young and foolish.

Luckily the time I did snap and stab someone something smaller and less dangerous came to hand first. But why was I carrying in the first place?

Weapons represent power, this is something we understand pretty much instinctively but it's also ingrained in our culture. Power (or the illusion of power) can be comforting. I hear on the news kids these days are still carrying knives for protection, because they are afraid. It think saying they are afraid is too simplistic. They may be feeling threatened - or lost, stressed, anxious, confused ... anything that makes people look for some sort of security blanket. I was, so I won't vilify young folk who carry for defensive reasons now.

Some people carry religious iconography for comfort. I don't believe that's any -more- rational, but it surely cuts down on the odds of someone getting hurt, or making a mistake they'll carry with them for the rest on their lives.

As we comprehend that wealth also represents power and wealth or the appearance of it becomes achievable knives are replaced by flash cars, or the latest fashion. Social status represents power so some seek relationships with those who have it to give the impression they influence them (eg the older boyfriend, any amount of hanger-on behaviour). Later this reverses and having the trophy wife or the boy toy becomes the object du comfort.

Some people store up the insecurity and then try to purge it by binging - whether by shopping or drinking or.... Some of these methods are more dangerous than others.

Some people use violence/other forms of deliberately offensive behaviour. If you're carrying a knife -as a threat-, that's not defensive. I can't condone that.

~~~
So people are insecure creatures, and some people carry weapons as a form of comfort. This has a high probability of unintended consequences. What's to be done? I don't have an answer, other than striving to be understanding if faced with this behaviour, and encouraging people in life whenever possible. So I'm going to go a little zen and reference Kung Fu Panda which has insecurity as one of it's major themes.

Po binges (eats) when he is upset. At the end of his training there is a massive fight over the last dumpling, but when he finally -gets- the dumpling he realises he isn't hungry any more. His insecurity has been overcome, in no small part because he has been too busy with a training montage to worry about it.

Keeping busy is another way a lot of people (myself included) push their insecurities to the back of their mind. It may be a form of binging. Sometimes you do come out of the other side having grown past the fear. That's a hard road to find by yourself, but others can help with no more than a kind word here, a bit of encouragement there. Don't shun that assistance, and don't hesitate to help others when the opportunity arises, and we'll all feel more secure.