Here be Dragons
Early map makers were known for placing the phrase “here be dragons” on the uncharted reaches of historic drawings. The premise being that danger lies beyond that of which we know. When I ponder these precarious warnings, I think about the different types of people, the ones that heed this advice staying within the safety of the familiar and the others that take these warning as a signpost, pointing them towards the fire.
Rarely do I like to lump people into categories of this or that (according to Esther Perel, a Belgian Psychotherapist, we are actually a walking paradox requiring a healthy mixture of both) but as I look at the constructs of our modern world, I cannot help but feel like our balance between these two extremes is a little off.
Climate change, economic disparity, biodiversity loss, polluted oceans, waring nations, heighted global tensions, and the epidemic of internal strife, are now the dragons knocking at our door. It’s as if true danger now lies in our stagnation rather than our ability to push beyond.
The challenge is that moving past our limitations and stumbling into innovation requires risk and even failure, and in the western world a disproportionate value has been placed on the safe, sanitary, comfortable, and secure. Studies showing that millennials and gen z are more risk adverse than their predecessors, suffering from increased frequencies of anxiety when faced with the unknown, as well as career sealings due to the fear of falling (Forbes, 2019).
Think about our popular messaging…
“Better safe than sorry”
“Safety first”
“Safe travels”
What about having adventurous travels? What about enjoying the ride to our destinations? Not only is prioritizing safety robbing us of innovation, in my opinion it is also sucking the life out of living. Leading to individuals chasing short term pleasure (and environmental collapse) versus the more precarious journey of uncovering your purpose and finding nontraditional ways to bring these visions to life.
Three years ago, I was gifted an over night stay with the resident Crone of the Schmitike clan (Aunty A). This magical evening, we drank wine, shared stories, and laughed at the lives we had both lived. Suddenly as the end of night drew near the mood changed, her wise eyes softened and with a mischievous smile she looked into my soul and said, “Kim, if I had to do it all again, I would in a heartbeat, the only thing I would change is that I would have been more reckless, thrown more caution to the wind, and taken more chances.”
Now this is not your typical 80-year-old! This is a woman who has lived one of the most adventurous lives of anyone I have known. Moving to India as a young woman, having her first baby in a foreign land, and touching more corners of this world than most beings alive today. I left understanding exactly why she is our family Crone, while heeding the gravity of her advice.
One of the most ironic things about our preference for the safe and secure is that on some level we all know it to be a fallacy. It could never be safe on a planet where the only outcome of life is death. So perhaps safety is not the point, maybe the point of this human experience is instead to spend our days risking the unknown, finding what brings us to life verses merely preventing us from sudden peril.
If you too feel that being human in the modern world is a little too sanitary, you are not alone, there is a deafening call, like the piercing sound of wild geese, ushering us beyond the limitations of the lives we have built. What lies on the other side is indeed uncharted territory requiring equal parts imagination and courage, beckoning us to meet the dragons in the waters of our growth.