Lion Taming

If It’s So Dangerous, Why Do You Do It? (Lion Taming)

This is a question I am often asked when I go into the cage to tame lions. 

“If it’s so dangerous, why do you do it?”

Because at any moment, at the whim of the lions, I could be killed.  One paw swipe -dead.

That’s what makes it more than exciting, it is life and death at the same instance – the same instant.  And, the fact the I, a wimpy little guy, can make lions, big, carnivorous and horribly dangerous, do what I want them to do.  It’s a feeling of power, like a Roman Emperor or Caesar.

On the serious side; I am not a lion tamer.  Actually I don’t have any desire to tame lions.  I prefer my lions untamed and somewhere far away, like … I don’t know … Africa?  Unless I am in Africa, then I think I’d like all the lions somewhere else … say Cleveland, Ohio?  I’ve lived in Cleveland, if all the lions were roaming around there, I’d be concerned for the safety of the lions.

They love their tailgate bar-b-que parties in Cleveland.

“Hey?  What ‘cha got on the grill?”

“Lion.”

“Yeah?  Cool.  What time does the game start?”

Still, it’s the same question – the same thought pattern.  Danger should equal, or cause, avoidance.  In just about every other higher brain functioning species, it does.  Dogs, cats, even alligators avoid what they perceive as a dangerous threat to their lives.  Only humans go straight after danger.  Well, some do.  The adrenalin junkies, etc..  Thrill seekers.  Put a house cat on a roller-coaster ride and it will loose its mind.

To me the question is not one of danger, but fear.  Does danger = fear?  Not for everyone, it doesn’t.  I think it’s pretty much impossible not to feel fear.  The physical monkey brain just sees, or feels, a threat and wham! – fear.  Like any muscle (and the human brain is actually a modified muscle) I think you can train the brain.  If it’s possible to train a lion, why not the human brain?

The lion is condtioned to fear the human trainer, and his whip or whatever device he uses (cattle prod?) to create that fear.  The lion does not think deeply enough, as deeply as a human is capable of thinking anyway, and so his fear controls him.  Even though he could do in that trainer without much effort at all.  According to evolution, the lion doesn’t really have a choice.

A human being, a lion tamer, does have a choice.  It is the fear that keeps the lion tamer alive when he is in the cage with the lion.  Yes, the lion’s conditioned fear of the trainer, but also the trainer’s fear of the lion capabilities – the awareness of the lion’s wildness and unpredictability.  The lion tamer follows a time tested method of taming the lions, never forgetting for a single instant that a mistake could cost him his life.

So why do it?  Why do things that are so dangerous?  For one thing the lion has been, essentially, driven to a state mental illness.  By repeated mistreatment and psychological attacks on his natural state of lion awareness, the lion has become subservient to his own fear.  Beat down, courage collapsed, wildness destroyed. 

And that is why.  That is what doing dangerous things is all about.  To make the determination of choosing to be either the lion tamer or the lion. 

I ride a motorcycle.  My motorcycle is my main form of transportation.  Two reasons: one, I enjoy it.  The sense of not being in a car where I am surrounded by metal, on four wheels, leaning away from the curves, sitting in a chair.  Like I am at home watching TV.  To my mind, driving a car is like watching other people and places pass by on TV. 

On the bike I lean into the curves.  There just seems to be a lot more road when you’re on a bike.  The line of travel on a narrow road is straighter – or it’s possible to take a straighter line, which is simply more fun.  In traffic you accelerate out of lights, intersections faster (less mass to overcome inertia). 

That’s the main thing; motorcycling is just fun and more mentally interesting.

The second reason:  it is dangerous.  Riding a motorcycle, in most places, rural or urban, is dangerous and nobody should take a different view.  It is foolish to think otherwise.  One difference with the lion analogy to motorcycle riding, is that the lions are not afraid of you.  The lions, or cars, think nothing of taking you out.  Half the time they don’t even see you – at least that’s what they always tell the Highway Patrol after they hit a biker, “I didn’t see him.” 

Bullshit? They weren’t paying attention and they didn’t care.  But then that’s a whole ‘nother blog.

I love to fly in airplanes.  I especially like the takeoffs and landings.  Especially, especially the landings.  I can’t really say why.  At one time I was absolutely phobic about flying. 

Neither of these things are thrill seeking things.  The thrill, and there is a thrill in doing them – I admit that – is that the danger is seemingly indigenous to the activity itself, but upon closer analysis is really not dangerous much at all.

Somehow, somewhere, I can’t totally remember or determine, I decided that fear did equal danger and that I liked that!  To be honest, I am assuredly not an adrenaline junkie. 

One activity I enjoy is big water kayaking.  Ocean kayaking.  This is not a fast sport.  Paddling a long boat in the average waves is slower than walking (when you’re my age anyway).  But it can be dangerous, very dangerous if you miscalculate.  You have to know your limits and be prepared for all kinds of things that can happen.  Storms coming up out of, seemingly, nowhere.  Wind, tides, currents.

In a twinkling, out on big water, you can be miles from where you need to be.  Exhausted, dehydrated, over-exposed.  You can die and it would be slow and very miserable.

Big water kayaking is not an adrenaline fueled sport.  It is more like marathon running.  And marathon running can also be very dangerous. 

So in many instances danger does not immediately equal fear.  The danger can creep up on you, like a deadly snake.  You have no idea it’s there and whap! you’re bit (instant fear!).  This is where the training comes in; the brain (lion) training.  The acceptance of danger as a part of life and a big part of why you might actually want to step into that lion cage, once in a while.

Often a reasonable step-by-step learning period is required to pursue some things that do carry some potential risks.  And these steps lead to and promote greater skills in that activity and hence reduce the actual danger(s).  I’m saying here you can’t be stupid about this stuff.  But you can begin to break down the bars of the fear cage.

Of course, I know this is not a new concept I am relating.  Many others have written and spoken about “being ruled by fear”.  And, how being ruled by fear can corrode your quality of life.  All that being true, in my mind.  My thought here is how often there is a tendency to fool ourselves into being afraid when it is only danger we perceive, without analyzing that danger.  Determining if that particular danger is actually a true threat or not.

To me it mostly comes down to; it is not a matter of how much fear a person is willing to accept, but if they are willing to extend enough effort to find the courage to overcome that fear.  

Fear is natural, courage is acquired.  

For me, I would rather seek the freedom of courage found in danger, even though some would call it foolish, than live in a cage of fear.

Peace and live joyously,

Dale Clarence Peterson © 2014 Copyright

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