Safety is perceived. Why would I say that?

Because simply put safety is personal.

To be safe is to take care of your inner child, but also to work through any triggers that you have associated with spaces outside of you that you cannot control. Control is a huge theme in my writings lately, as well as being human.

Safety is also sometimes and is mostly perceived as leaving a place or a situation that is deemed unsafe. Like seeking shelter after a horrific experience. Or it is feeling safe in place and location and in the body after a long period of time. Usually, the feeling safe in the body is when you are able to start processing everything. It’s the “oh my god, that really happened” thought process - scary, but necessary if you want to live out a life that you want.

On a larger scale, and especially at events, cons, or festivals, we do not call things “safe” as nothing is completely safe. But we do call it Mitigating Risk.

In risk mitigation, one looks at all angles of what could possibly happen prior to, during, and immediately after a large-scale event, or other large-scale projects. Most of the time they look at possible natural disasters and weather-related things, other times they look at the possibility of people with guns, or drugs that could personally harm themselves and/or others.

With the example of weather, a project manager on this event would look at all of the ‘what ifs’. What if it rains - are there enough shelters? How much is too much rain to cancel? What kind of evacuation plan is needed if it rains mid-event? What if it is too hot - how many healthcare workers do we have on-site in case of heatstroke? How many water stations are there? How many water bottles do we need to have for the number of people attending? Is there enough shade for everyone? Would we need to ask attendees to bring shelters with them for shade?

So many questions have to be answered to mitigate risk, well before an event occurs.

But again, that doesn’t really answer that safety is perceived, does it?

Safety, is again, very personal.

There is this event that is occurring, and there had been some backlash with some things because people felt that the rules in place did not reflect the security that people wanted to feel when they attended the event. So they expressed their displease very publicly. Their displease was personal because, in thoughts of the event organizers from my perspective, it only looked like they wanted everyone to have the chance to attend - and as a free & normal human being.

Safety is perceived as whatever a person wants to risk for themselves, and what level of security they will accept in any circumstance.

{As an example: to go to an event, step outside, or even fly on a plane.}

A lot of that stems from personal fears that could have conjured up over lifetimes, and sometimes recently depending on individual life happenings.

Safety, risk and fear seem to co-exist in the same plane. Without fear, you wouldn’t feel scared. Without safety & security, you wouldn’t feel secure. Without risk, you wouldn’t have the reward and wouldn't feel fulfilled.

I could honestly go on and on with this, and give more examples of differences & humanness, but I will leave you with this:

Everything is real & also not real, safety & security are personal, Mitigating risk is collective, and at the end of the day, we are all human beings with souls in meat suits on the same planet just living life.

Love yourselves, love your fellow humans, and believe in the best possibilities of life.

Much Love,

Amanda