Fear Re-visited

Good morning !
The view from the window this morning is : 50% blue sky, 50% white fluffy clouds. Last night`s torrential rain has stopped, the rubbish has been put out for the refuse collector van and my dear hubster has gone back to work , to return home Friday lunchtime.


Daughters 1 and 3 went to see Thunderbirds at the cinema last night and came home very enthusiastic. I think this will be one film I get on DVD, as I cannot persuade hubster to go to the cinema with me to see it..........me, I love Thunderbirds. [Not just because Anthony Edwards, my favourite ER actor is in it either :-) ]
I also love Star Trek.
And Babylon 5.
There, my guilty secret is out.

Much to hubster`s surprise, I did not enjoy the new Lord of the Rings trilogy films although I love the books. The films were well done, but the hobbits just weren`t the way *I* imagined them. Do any of you remember the wonderful animated LOTR cartoon, back in the 80`s, I think, that only covered part of the story and then, I imagine, the funding ran out ? That had the hobbits just right. Orlando Bloom was just too pretty.
It always amazes me how influential the subjective likes and dislikes in our lives can be .......after all, why could I not suspend my own visualisations and prejudices about hobbits for a short while in order to be able to enjoy someone else`s interpretations?

Said beloved hubster is one of the kindest, gentlest men on the planet. He never speaks ill of anyone. Yet surprisingly, he likes thrillers and agggressive action movies. He has Rambo, every Arnie film, and will watch films that to me are Horror genre and would give me nightmares for months, and he will enjoy them. When I am cringing and hiding my eyes when people are being slit with knives, stalked and generally experiencing the bad side of life, he just laughs and reminds me that "It is only a film !".
Well, I know that, but I still can`t watch them. They raise my Fear levels **way** beyond comfortable.
Which brings me to the point of this post !

Go read this http://neepeople.squarespace.com/journeymanjames/fear.html

Jim and Laura are on my daily blog -read list , though we have never met and may never do so in this life. Jim`s post on Fear left me quaking in my purple slippers.
Hubster works away a lot, and I am in the house with four female offspring many nights. I do not know what I would do if , God forbid, an intruder broke in. I almost always have my mobile phone in my bedroom so I could call for help, but nevertheless............. I am short, and have the physical fitness of a wet noodle. At least in the USA, you are able to protect yourself against invaders in your own home.

In the UK, you cannot rely on it. If an intruder breaks in your home, and you hit him on the head with a frying-pan, he can sue *you* for assault and claim damages. If your dog bites an intruder whilst in your own home, the intruder can sue you for not keeping your animal under control. In the UK, the legal attitude seems to be that the only "reasonable force" you can use to defend yourself against an intruder is limited to " Be a good chap and leave my property, please. I have called the police".

If you do anything more than that, you do risk being imprisoned for assault. My only hope is that daughter number 3 would wallop the intruder with a hockey stick and disable him long enough for us to tie him up. She would be below the age where she could be sent to prison for assault, and we would only have to worry about being charged with keeping a potential weapon in the house.

And yes, here you can be prosecuted for carrying anything that could conceivably be described as a potential weapon if you have the intention of using it as such. So if I carry a metal hair comb with a long handle in my bag, thinking one day it might come in handy to defend myself against an attacker, God help me because the legal system will eat me alive if a poor innocent attacker gets hurt as a result.

The only thing - and perhaps the best thing - I can do is to pray. My children have their guardian angel icons in their rooms and have been taught that their angels are there to help them wherever they are. I do believe it too, but there is always the nagging doubt at the back of my mind.

Jim`s post on fear left me quaking. If I defend my family, I could end up in prison and my family would suffer. If I don`t, we could end up seriously hurt or dead. My only consolation is that we live next door to a lovely couple, and they are both police officers..........I will just train my kids to scream very, very, very loud :-)
Lord, have mercy.
love,
Elizabeth

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