Peril!

I feel as though the State Department has taken over where my mother left off. 

Let's all be anxious about vague, improbable things happening!  Like a terror attack anywhere in the world where Americans might be traveling on a plane, on a ship, in a subway during the month of August.  Keep your eyes and ears open (right, like that's going to work.).  That's the warning they issued today.

My parents were crazy anxious.   My mother used to stand at the end of our driveway, wringing her hands if my dad was late home from work.  Either that or stand at the sink with her lips moving silently, clearly praying for his safe return.  This was on a routine work day.

An occasion for fear

If my dad opened a can of anything--fruit, vegetable, or meat--he'd worry that it might have botulism.  What are the chances? Just about nil, but my sister and I didn't know that, and I have thrown away many a can because there was a weird air sound when I opened it (which turns out to be okay because there's some kind of vacuum effect).

It's taken years of therapy to figure out that the threats were overstated, that I don't have to be afraid of every last thing.  That the cruise ship isn't going to sink, the plane isn't going to crash, that every physical symptom Jerry or I have isn't going to be cancer, for God's sake.

Taught to be anxious, alas

Now here comes the State Department,  teaching us to be fearful about things we can't control and that are statistically improbable as far as any individual is concerned.

My sleep doctor, who practices Cognitive Behavior Therapy (Use your head!  Don't let emotions drive you!) would beat back the State Department warnings with all kinds of probabilities and statistics, until they were whimpering in a corner, tiny enough to fit into a mouse hole.  I would leave his office feeling I was taller and standing up straighter than when I walked in.

The cruise ship did not sink

The State Department needs some CBT.  Or do they know the statistics and are they just covering their asses in case something really does happen?  Can people sue the State Department?