Isn’t this a much used word these days? Internet security, home security, wifi security, personal security, National Security! We are constantly being warned to be aware of ever-present dangers and to protect ourselves against them. We install dead-bolts, alarm systems, firewalls, encryption, MI5 and accept having to take our shoes off at airport check-ins all in the name of security. Now I am not suggesting for a minute that we should not be aware of these dangers and take sensible precautions against them. However, when we get to a stage where, as a country, the laws we pass curtail our liberties and restrict our rights under the law to the extent that they have, one has to wonder. I would also link it to our obsession with Health & Safety: the other day I heard someone seriously referring to dropped rubber bands as a safety hazard!

In life nothing is certain, and one of the key adaptive skills we have as a race, and we develop as individuals, is our ability to handle sudden and unexpected things, some good, some bad. However, these are just labels, and often we can have some of our very best experiences as a result of an initial ‘bad’ event.

It is only human to want to be and feel secure. However, learning to manage successfully in a world that is intrinsically insecure is a true life skill and we should not be insulated from developing this. It is a bigger version of not allowing our kids to play in playgrounds in case they fall over. Of course they will fall over, we all did just that and yet here we are today…

Some people enjoy the thrill of a little danger, and that is great; but for those of us who are wired differently, I would still suggest that we don’t overdo the whole security thing… maybe today is a good day to take a risk.

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” Alan Cohen

“There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity.” Douglas MacArthur