Just some notes to remind myself to write this out later
Practice Failure
When my wife had foot surgery and was forced to perambulate on one good leg using either a walker or a knee scooter for the injured one it suddenly struck me how scared she was of falling over while moving around. My dad and I built a temporary ramp onto the back porch of my house to ease access for my wife while she was mobility challenged for the several months it took her to recover. We had it completed some days before her initial surgery, and she practiced with the knee scooter prior to surgery, rolling up and down the ramp. Her trips were slow, unsteady and trepidatious. In contrast, I tried it a few times and it seemed like no big deal.
Having thought about it, I think the difference in our approaches was partly because I wasn't too worried about falling while she was terrified of doing so. I didn't much care about falling off the scooter because falling isn't a new experience for me. I've practiced falling many times over the years as part of everything from learning to slide in little league baseball to performing breakfalls in various martial arts classes. Having the ground suddenly tilt up and smack me, while it's not pleasant, is not a new sensation. If me falling is a failure, then it's a practiced failure.
My wife looked at me like I was nuts when I told her she should practice falling. To practice falling is to practice failure. If you practice falling you no longer fear it. Same goes for failures of other sorts. Practice failing and you won't fear it as much. Thomas Edison knew it. Good cooks know it too. Your first cake may come out flat or burned. That's fine. You took a risk and the outcome wasn't optimal, so try it again. Edison failed to invent the lightbulb more than a hundred times.
Daily life is often unsatisfactory, I believe, because of the lack of identifiable risks. That's what's so fun about backpacking. It's not a completely comfortable and safe activity; there are some risks. Maybe I'll be cold at night. Maybe I'll get lost for a while, or at least be unsure that I'm still heading where I think I'm heading. That's okay.
[REM - need to think more about this risk versus danger stuff]
