I know people who pride themselves on being contrary; I know people for whom conformity is paramount. I find it difficult to avoid being disdainful of both types; very little good comes from turning your brain off and functioning mostly on knee-jerk reactions. Every situation needs to be evaluated on its own merits.
Sometimes what seems to me to be the only reasonable course of action is one that smacks of defiance. I'm OK with that if the situation warrants it.
In the fall of 2001, while we were still reeling from the new reality of a world in which actions like the 9-11 attacks were possible, the news carried stories of people cancelling plane reservations. They either dropped their travel plans entirely, or they went by car if it was an option. People were fearful.
I had a different reaction. I booked coast to coast plane tickets for my entire family of 6.
My oldest was 15; the other kids were 14, 7 and 3. With a child in high school, we were realizing that soon she'd be out of our home, followed by her sister. I'd recently come through a health scare. We'd all always wanted to go to Walt Disney World, and there seemed to be no better time than the present.
We'd fly in and out of San Francisco and Orlando. The idea of cross country flights still seemed frightening to many, but I refused to be frightened into submission.
The idea of Disney World seemed unnerving to people, as well. More than one person told us, in worried tones, "Theme parks are considered high risk targets." Terrorists wishing to strike at the heart of America were likely to mount an attack in a place crowded with people seen as infidels, we were told, and Disney World has the largest attendance of any theme park destination. "They're likely to strike there next," they said.
I didn't care. The chance that I was painting a giant, theoretical target on my entire family was remote, I was sure, but I knew that it was there. I also knew that we were statistically more likely to be struck by lightning.
Do you remember those commercials that ran through a lot of 2002 and 2003 – "I fought terrorism by going to my sister's wedding." " I fought terrorism by attending my class reunion." That's how I felt – my own version of "give 'em hell." "I WILL put my family on cross country flights to high risk targets!" In any crisis, my strength is keeping things as normal and calm as possible. It was just inconceivable that we'd let evil keep us from doing what we wanted.
We had a great time. (And I have no regrets.)
Why am I thinking of this now? Because my husband and I had planned to see The Dark Knight Rises on July 20, 2012. We didn't go to a midnight showing (although I have friends who did). With our two youngest children out of town, we had rare time to do couple stuff. We had plans to go during the first day of the movie's run.
We did not change those plans after what happened in Colorado. Again, intellectually it was clear that the risk to us was small, but mostly, we were both angry enough to attend simply to thumb our noses at anyone who tried to ruin something as universally loved as attending a movie. Our family loves the movies – we refused to let the experience be tainted.
There were, perhaps, eight people in the afternoon showing we attended. We passed more security personnel on the outside of the theater.
That's a shame.
I do appreciate the efforts being made to keep me and others safe, don't get me wrong. Thank you, security personnel everywhere. It's just a shame when we let fear make too many of our decisions.
If I am ever harmed by going somewhere that others were avoiding, please know that it wasn't ignorance. It was defiance. They can come after me if they want, but in the Big Scheme of Things, they cannot win.
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