EDINBURGH
On our second day at St. Andrews, we had a day off and decided to tour Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the home of several important institutions, including Edinburgh University, the Scottish Parliament and the Museum of Scotland. The Museum of Scotland is organized in an interesting way, dividing its collection by age, with each floor representing a particular era of history. The artifacts of the earliest historical period are represented by robot-like figures with display cases attached to the appropriate parts of the body where the artifacts were worn. The picture in my scrapbook captioned "the internet grandfather with his ancestors" is from the lowest floor of the museum. I'm partly Scottish so I particularly enjoyed seeing representatives of some of my ancestors in such an interesting setting.
With all of these wonderful attractions, one attraction stands out, Edinburgh Castle. This castle is located where Edinburgh began and represents the most important parts of Scottish history. It commands a panoramic view of the city and continues to house the Scottish Division of the military. The castle was the seat of Scottish kings and houses the ancient crown jewels of Scotland. We spent most of the day in and around the castle, admiring the cannons and other artifacts of the castle, the esplanade, which was in preparation for the annual military parade, and various rooms of the castle. (My ancestors were really short!)
Whenever I'm in a castle, I think about security, I think about how dangerous the world is and was, I think about the cost of security, of protecting oneself against danger. Castles were an attempt to achieve the ultimate protection against enemies but of course all of the ones I've seen ultimately failed. Superior numbers or technology eventually defeated the inhabitants of the castles. So it is with most protections we use today. Burglar and fire alarms, security guards, safes, sophisticated new armor and other efforts at protection are imperfect. As fast as we find new protective devices someone else figures out how to thwart them.
If we want perfect security, complete safety, total avoidance of danger, we have to withdraw from the world, cease interacting with everyone. Since anyone could be a threat to our safety, we couldn't trust anybody, we couldn't allow anyone within the walls of our personal castles. So living in the world, going about our business, enjoying life, requires that we balance safety with other considerations. We are forced to trust others in order to benefit from their company. We have to unlock our doors, invite people into our castles, to maintain the personal relationships we want and need. And it's the same with the mental barriers we erect against other people. If we don't trust, if we don't relax the barriers, if we don't allow others to know us, we'll miss out on the most important things in life. It's true that by revealing ourselves, by opening ourselves to others, by seeking personal relationships, we risk being hurt. But avoidance of hurt requires us to avoid life, avoid the human relationships that make life worth living.
We can be prudent in the risks we take, we can take due regard of both our physical and mental safety in the way we live, in our choices of companions and friends, in how we live our lives. But we must take risks or give up on life, on humanity. The choice is obvious but making the right choice requires us to make a conscious choice. If we heedlessly give safety priority, we'll find ourselves alone, bereft of human companionship. That would be a shame.
9-30-02
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