I received an e-mail that was based on the latest suicide bombing in Turkey. This e-mail was rude, crude and socially unacceptable and it was all centered around how dumb I am to be going to Turkey on vacation, much less living in Russia…
Yes we are going to Antalya. Yes – I read about this bombing and treated it the same, as I do all suicide bombings. With sadness and wonderment about how mentally ill some people are that do such things. But it in no way makes any difference in what Sveta and I intend to do for a vacation. Even though it was within a long stone throw of where we are going to be staying…
Sveta, like I, do not live our lives in fear. We do not live our lives in hiding. We take life as it comes. In fact life is a lot of fun when you are able to set aside the fear of something that is a tiny fraction of what can happen in life everyday…
That seems to be something that more than a few Americans are unable to do. As to the number of e-mails I have received on the subject of traveling to Turkey. For every e-mail that says, “Hey that would be fun!” I get 10 more that say, “You are crazy!”
Then when I get an e-mail as vile as the one I got this morning. I think about what Yoda said in a Star Wars movie:
Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. YODA
Now how true that is and then I think of this:
I used to think the reason I’d like to stop letting fear run my life was that it felt so bad to be afraid, and also that it was pointless–possibly wasted, if the feared thing never did materialize. But now that fear has packed its miserable bags and is running out the door, making slamming noises to call attention to itself, I begin to see how much room fear has occupied. What opportunity opens up! JAN FRAZIER
Today I realize that I feel sadness for people who are not able to explore the world and enjoy the sights and sounds of a society halfway around the world. I feel bad for people that have spent their whole lives in fear of something that might happen. I guess that I am lucky in the fact that my past gave me an opportunity to confront fear, along time ago…
I can’t wait for the e-mails that I get when we finally make our trip to Iran that we want to do… 🙂
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!
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