Dangerzone

 Daytona Bike Week

Flirting with danger? It sounds exciting at the time. That rush of adrenalin is
almost like you can hear the music of “Highway to the Danger Zone” with Tom Cruise is ringing in your ears. You are gonna live forever and nothing can touch you, until that moment when your “Goose” is dead or you’ve cooked your own goose.

Kenny Loggins, Highway to the Dangerzone

Revvin’ up your engine Listen to her howlin’ roar Metal under tension Beggin’ you to touch and go
Highway to the danger zone Ride into the danger zone
Headin’ into twilight Spreadin’ out her wings tonight She got you jumpin’ off the track And shovin’ into overdrive
Highway to the danger zone I’ll take you Ridin’ into the danger zone
You’ll never say hello to you Until you get it on the red line overload You’ll never know what you can do Until you get it up as high as you can go
Out along the edges Always where I burn to be The further on the edge The hotter the intensity
Highway to the danger zone Gonna take you Right into the danger zone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDDnThgNWnU&feature=related

This implies you have plenty of time to turn around and make a different decision. It doesn’t just come upon you all of a sudden, you can take a different road or turn away from the danger. That’s how people who don’t wear seatbelts think. They have this idea that if they sense a crash they can whip out the seatbelt and buckle up. Wrong- the seatbelt system will lock and there is not time. Seconds may seem like minutes, but that’s the definition of an accident, ” you don’t expect it or see it coming”. Not the case with being in a dangerzone. You can hear the warning bells in your subconscious. Whether you choose to listen or not, is totally up to you.

As a teen have you ever postponed doing all your homework until the week its due? Have you gone rushing from instructor to instructor, begging to delay deadlines, to be allowed to make up the work, or make some bargain to keep from failing- citing the severe punishment that your parents will surely dole out if the teachers do not help you pull it out of the fire at the last minute? The most damaging thing is all the lies and trumped up stories that must be created to “excuse” the unexcusable.

Flirting with danger is also easy to see when you are associating with people who aren’t good for you, thinking that you can be around it without being involved in it. We become ” more so” and more like the people we choose to spend time with. Example: Your girlfriend does drugs. You turn a blind eye, because she doesn’t do it directly in your presence, but you have enough evidence to know she’s playing with fire. You can see by the other choices she makes with the people in her life and all the erratic behavior, the emotional roller coasters, the problems with the law and you know that it might not be part of your life, but she is.

Or you could be like the boy who was not driving and was dropped off at a party by his parents. The party went long into the evening at a girl’s home with her parents supervising. He assumed he was safe, because he could drink and party and have a good old time in what seemed like a safe setting. But the other people at the party decided to take him home. The boy had passed out so they carried him to the car. The mother of the girl who drove the ill fated car of teens, watched her daughter drive away. Everyone in that car was killed that night because an intoxicated teen drove on the highway into the wrong direction, causing a head on collision. It’s playing with fire when you do things that take you into an unsafe situation or at high risk for negative outcomes. Sadly, some of our decisions,end up placing our fate squarely in the hands of someone else. If we knew the end from the beginning, we wouldn’t even go there.

Ever heard of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time? How does that usually happen? Do we realized it beforehand or only after something goes wrong?

What happens when addicts go through recovery with AA and then later decide the whole program is bunk , keep beer in their refrigerator and say they can drink responsibly? What about a recovering alcoholic who keeps a bottle of crown royal in the kitchen cabinet, just to prove to himself he won’t touch it. Or the former smoker who keeps a pack of cigarettes frozen in a block of ice in the freezer to prove they have control or at least can get control back before the tobacco thaws sufficiently to light up.

Did you see the movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic? Remember the scene where she is pounding the credit card out of ice or where she is faced with her own unraveling?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060CSIX8/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20

Molly Hatchet,  Flirtin with Disaster

I’m travellin’ down the road and I’m flirtin with disaster I’ve got my pedal to the floor and my life is running faster I’m outta money, outta hope and it looks like self destruction Well how much more can we take with all of this corruption We’re flirtin with disaster, y’all know what I mean And the way we run our lives it makes no sense to me I don’t know about yourself, or what you wanna be, yeah When we gamble with our time we choose our destiny I’m travellin’ down that lonesome road. Feel like i’m draggin’ a heavy load. Yet I’ve tried to turn my head away, Feel about the same most every day You know what I’m talkin about man Speeding down the fast lane and honey we’re playin’ from town to town The boys and I been burnin’ it up and honey can’t seem to slow it down I got the pedal to the floor and our lives are runnin’ faster, We got our sights set straight ahead but i ain’t sure what we’re after We’re flirtin’ with disaster, y’all damn sure know what i mean. You know the way we run our lives it makes no sense to me I don’t know about yourself, or what you plan to be, yeah When we gamble with our time we choose our destiny Yeah! We’re travellin’ down that lonesome road. Feel like I’m draggin’ a heavy load. Though i try to turn my head away, I’m flirtin’ with disaster every day. And you are too baby, Ha ha ha ha ha It ain’t for everybody, Oh come on man *Guitar Solo* We’re flirtin’ with disaster man, y’all know what I mean You know the way we run our lives it makes no sense to me I don’t know about yourself or what you plan to be When we gamble with our time we choose our destiny Yeah! We’re travellin’ down this lonesome road. Feel like I’m draggin’ a heavy load. Though i try to turn my head away, Bop mm bop bop yeah We’re flirtin’ with disaster every day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgNAfSENE68

Flirting with danger or disaster, playing with fire, taking the highway into the dangerzone, whatever you wish to call it, we’ve all done it. Most of us reading this now, have lived through it and can tell others. The most poignant song portrays what happens when you realize it. What can we do when danger has arrived, when that fire has singed our skins, when we find ourselves in danger of being lost, our lives taken over by forces outside our control due to choices we have made that took us too close to the edge? We have two choices, beat a hasty retreat or be burned. Let it go or let it take control. Run or stay too long until you lose yourself and everything that matters. Or purpose to take control of your life and let the situation and everything and everyone that refuses to go- stay. Like the story of Noah and the Ark, he warned and he prepared and he left those who refused to go with him. Like the story of Samson and Delilah, he underestimated the danger and lost his strength and his eyes and his lady love. He was left with nothing and in one divine moment was given grace to extract recompense. Hindsight is 20/20 and a blessing if you can look back and realize how close you came to losing yourself, when it’s all behind you and you can move forward with a clear conscience and a better understanding of the costs/benefit ratios in life.

What does she mean? Is it possible to set water on fire? Is it possible for tears to burn a path down your cheeks? Is it possible to change your life with your decisions?????

In the beginning, it seems as if she has just ended a relationship and felt like her life is in pieces (i.e. “I let it fall, my heart” and “It was dark and I was over”). This new relationship helped her pull herself together (i.e. “And as it fell, you rose to claim it” […] “Until you kissed my lips and you saved me”). She didn’t recognize her weaknesses in the new relationship (i.e. “My hands, they were strong, but my knees were far too weak / To stand in your arms without falling to your feet”). She describes him & how she felt.  (i.e. “But there’s a side to you that I never knew, never knew / All the things you’d say, they were never true, never true / And the games you’d play, you would always win, always win”). Adele uses a very deep metaphor to describe how she ends the relationship (i.e. “But I set fire to the rain / Watched it pour as I touched your face / Well, it burned while I cried / ‘Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name). By “setting fire to the rain”,  Adele had the courage to confront a situation that was draining her. She was hurt (“it burned while I cried”) by the situation. (” ‘Cause I heard it screaming out your name”). And confused( “When laying with you I could stay there / Close my eyes, feel you here forever / You and me together, nothing is better”) remembering how much faith she had in him, yet recognizing clearly that by confronting the situation, she knew there would be no going back (i.e. “And I threw us into the flames / Well I felt something die”). Setting fire to something changes it forever and she recognizes that since she confronted the situation, she has to walk away from it because it is fundamentally changed (i.e. “‘Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time). It is clear that she misses him and is left in pieces yet again (i.e. “Sometimes I wake up by the door / And heard you calling, must be waiting for you / Even now when we’re already over / I can’t help myself from looking for you”). But again she repeats the chorus to finalize her decision to be brave enough to face something, to confront it and to walk away from it.

Is anything worth losing yourself. Another biblical insight, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Is your core, your essence, your control of your own destiny worth playing with fire? More than one person has gambled and lost on this bet. Don’t take it. Bet on sure things and things that you know will take you to places you wish to be, where you can be yourself and live in peace and harmony.

 Joe’s dreamscape- low profile life in a high profile setting.

“Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn’t permanent.” – Jean Kerr