Have you ever had that day dream where you see someone attacking another person and you rush to save them?
I haven’t.
I have had the vision of sitting next to my kid, they start choking and in an instant, I push back the chair, stand and do the Heimlich maneuver. I’ve also had the play by play vision of being under the highway…and an earthquake shakes so hard the road above drops (like the 10 in 1994). In my vision I am able to reach back, unbuckle my kid, open the door and pull us to safety just before the highway above drops on my car smuching it. I’ve also (since I’m terrified to fly) (but do it often anyway) have had the mental day-dream run though on a plane – where the plane suddenly crash-lands and I’m able to grab all three of my kids under one arm (the oldest is 16), count back the seats to the door and run away from the burning about-to-explode wreckage.
Why have I done this?
Fear.
Fear of my kid choking. Fear of Earthquake. Fear of flying.
I’ve mentally pre-planned possible catastrophic disasters so that if one ever really happens- I will be so rehearsed, I will rise to superpower status.
Then my mind goes to the terrorists attacks that have caused havoc in theaters, busses and other places. Did those people being attacked have a plan? Did they practice this their action escape plan in their heads???
Probably not. I’m a mom-mental-freak of potential disasters (and because I’m a writer, I can get really creative) and yet, I’ve never done that.
Why?
Because of stats from The National Counterterrorism Center.
Which states: “In the last five years…your chances of being killed by a terrorist were about one in 20 million. Compare that to: Dying in a car accident of 1 in 19,000; drowning in a bathtub at 1 in 800,000; dying in a building fire at 1 in 99,000; or being struck by lightning at 1 in 5,500,000. In other words, in the last five years you were four times more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a terrorist.
So don’t fear being killed by a terrorist.
Well..not yet anyway.
How lucky are we!