{"id":272,"date":"2020-08-23T22:58:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T22:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2020-08-29T12:43:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T12:43:30","slug":"facing-danger-finding-wisdom-and-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/facing-danger-finding-wisdom-and-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing Danger, Finding Wisdom (and safety)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"max-width: 854px; margin-bottom: 0;\">\n<div style=\"position: relative; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ORp3q1Oaezw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" style=\"position: absolute; left: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #fafafa; color: #777; padding: 15px 25px; font-size: 0.8em; margin-bottom: 25px;\">Thank you, Mr. Davis. Your courage and humility have helped bring enlightenment to my experience. I will follow your lead and seek to learn from and understand the things that confuse me or even seem to threaten my very existence. Your example has the power to transform all of our lives and the world we live in.<\/div>\n<p>What would happen if tomorrow morning you woke up to find yourself having zero judgments \u2014\u00a0none whatsoever \u2014 about you, the universe, or anything in it (including other living beings)? <\/p>\n<p>What modern or ancient dangers lurk for someone who has no awareness of the need to avoid them? What if you had no reason to be mindful with things as benign-looking as crossing the street or getting too close to a rattlesnake, diving into a deep and expansive body of water, or drinking a toxic substance like Drano from a bottle? Which judgments bring us more safety or benefit from heeding them rather than being ignorant to them? Which judgments, if absent, would result in almost certain pain, suffering, or death?<\/p>\n<p>In that same vein, which judgments, if shed, would reveal entirely wonderful or stunning realizations or experiences? Which judgments keep us back from really potent opportunities to connect with ourselves and others, or imprison us, keeping us from gaining life experiences which almost universally benefit those who embrace them? What new beauties would we find, which experiences might we finally enjoy, what people or groups would brighten our lives?  <\/p>\n<p>We are all looking for those things which provide safety from pain or, alternatively, opportunities for pleasure. Keeping track of this data takes up a healthy portion of our memory. But have you ever wondered what happens if we re-examine the objects in that virtual rolodex of \u201cdos\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019ts\u201d? Daryl Davis did just that, and may be able to shed some light on what is possible when we deeply challenge existing cultural and personal belief or certainty. <\/p>\n<p>You see, Daryl decided to question the long-held judgments made by people inside or outside of his community. He even challenged the answers conjured up by his own mind about his place in the world around him, and why it often feels like a place of unwelcomeness for him. Rather than accept the answers, or even to imagine up personal answers for himself, he decided to revisit the question humans have long claimed certainty around: \u201cHow can you hate me when you don\u2019t even know me?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Many ask this question, and most often, the answers seem to be rooted in ethnocentric thinking: I hate you because you\u2019re inferior; I mistreat you because you\u2019re ignorant; I attack you because you\u2019re evil; I avoid you because you\u2019re dangerous; I criticize you because you\u2019re wrong. But really, these answers can all trace their root back to one, simple expression: I am afraid of you because you&#8217;re not familiar \u2014 because you&#8217;re not enough like me. Few humans, it seems, stop to question the answers they\u2019re given. His question was unique, perhaps only because it was asked more out of sincerity rather than sarcasm. I get the strong sense that Daryl wasn\u2019t merely searching for a rhetorical question to accompany a pre-determined answer, as is so often the case. <\/p>\n<p>I admire Daryl&#8217;s courage and humility in refusing to assume that he knew what motivated someone he knew little or nothing about. Rather than returning the favor of judgment and ignorance, he entered into a potentially treacherous relationship with humility and grace. Above all, he allowed himself to trust and nurture his deeper curiosity and wonder, and out of that came this incredible result of two willing men discovering their own humanity where they least expected it. <\/p>\n<p>What would happen if we all laid down our judgment \u2014\u00a0shed outside opinion \u2014 long enough to at least understand, and know &#8220;the truth&#8221; about something foreign for ourselves? If Daryl&#8217;s experience is any indication, then the answer is more vibrant and enlightening than most of us might believe.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you Daryl. I have something better to aim for in my own character because of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you, Mr. Davis. Your courage and humility have helped bring enlightenment to my experience. I will follow your lead and seek to learn from and understand the things that confuse me or even seem to threaten my very existence. Your example has the power to transform all of our lives and the world we &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/facing-danger-finding-wisdom-and-safety\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Facing Danger, Finding Wisdom (and safety)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.skytripping.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}