Fear

Around about Halloween the Bard and I were discussing his new hobby of tiger bating. This is the name I have given to his practice of finding the largest stranger in the vicinity, approaching him, and seeing if he can infuriate said chap to the point of violence without actually getting punched. Now, I have always seen the bard as a gentleman, a sweet chap who would go out of his way to keep things calm and placid. You can see how wrong I was.

I hypothesise that this, apparently, self destructive steak in our young friend is caused by evolution. Yes.

Deep in the murky depths of our history our ancestors survived against quite staggering odds without great strength or speed and completely lacking in the tooth ‘n’ claw department. Nothing stood between our plucky forerunner and almost certain death but his intelligence, his inventiveness and his ability to get rather handy with variously shaped pieces of flint.

Imagine life on primordial Earth. When he wasn’t actually asleep his existence must have been one of constant nervous tension:

The excitement of the hunt
The terror of being hunted
The anxiety of wondering when (and how) the next hunting based event would play out

Our ancestors’ bodies must have been positively awash with adrenaline. I believe that we evolved so that our bodies became accustomed to this increased adrenaline activity. In modern safe, sedentary societies few of us ever experience truly acute fear or excitement but our bodies still have a craving for adrenaline. This, I put it to you, is the reason behind the rise in extreme sports. This is why so many freaks - sorry I mean people - ride on roller-coasters and watch horror movies. We don’t really want to give up our safety but we ache for that old adrenaline rush.

You may surmise - from my little slip of the finger above – that I do not enjoy roller-coasters or horror movies. You would be right. I do not. But I too have the craving. My method of feeding the ancient habit? Travel. I buy a ticket, I go somewhere foreign where I don’t speak the language or have anywhere to stay, and I travel. Ah! Even the thought of it makes my heart beat faster.

And the Bard? He bates tigers.


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I saw this link on jaffers site. I got quite a good score - I think I only messed up on the word 'peruse'.

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

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