No Fear

     I'll let you in on something few people know about me. I have a fear of heights. It hasn't always been that way, I was a bit of a climber as a kid. I've shingled more than my share of roofs, set up more than one set of scaffolding. A skydiver friend explained it to me this way, "you're not afraid of heights, you are afraid of doing something stupid. while your feet aren't on the ground." He  gave this bit of wisdom to me as part of the explanation of why he always packed his own parachute. Frankly I've never wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, I'll never understand why anyone would. But his lesson stuck with me. Because I know me, I can and do, do stupid stuff,  without even trying. ( I like the way I worked do do into the conversation, never mind that, ok?) I am well aware of my capacity to do stupid things. Some of the stories about my adventures are almost legendary. Such as my wife's favorite story about the time she came back to the store to find I  had super glued my thumb and pointer finger to a pearl and my other hand to the bench pin and was forced to watch as my German Sheppard security dog ate my cheeseburger..
    Us farm kids learned to drive at an early age. By age 12, I was driving a tractor. At fourteen I owned my own pick up truck.That was common in the neighborhood I grew up in. There were even occasions when I had to drive the other guys equipment. Here are the firsts two questions we kids learned to ask. How do I shut this thing off?(start it) and where are the breaks?  The answers to those two questions removed most of the fear of doing something stupid.  Armed with a little knowledge we got stuff done.
    Knowledge is a good thing. That first pickup I owned was a 52 International, metal flake blue, duel exhaust, Hurst shifter with a Hemi in it and baby moon caps. For several years it had no reverse gear. Thing is I learned to compensate or plan for never backing up. Never really became a problem. Having the knowledge that there wasn't going to be any backing up and a plan that became a habit for parking  I compensated for "Babies" deficiency.
   Through all of that come some lessons. Yup I am capable of doing some pretty stupid stuff.  I prefer to do stupid stuff with my feet on the ground. Good habits and a plan can frequently prevent my doing stupid stuff.
Knowing  how to stop removes the fear of proceeding. (keep the acetone near the super glue) and remove the fear of failing by knowing that most of the time you succeed. In other words don't concentrate on having no reverse, instead plan to go forward.
    Tomorrow we are going to get to the meat of this being an artist stuff.  With some thoughts on the economy of it. I've been mulling it over a little.  ( Insider Joke: no banana necessary)