Thresholds

When you first pull up in an engine on a structure fire your mind is going a hundred miles an hour.  Despite all of your training, despite all of your motivation, when you find yourself advancing a hoseline into a building there is a real moment of fear. 

From experience, you know that when you finally step over the threshold and start working your training and experience kick in and that fear that for a moment that seemed unmanageable becomes manageable.

Time, distance, and experience will help you understand how normal it is to feel that fear.  It is not only normal to feel that way but desired.  Fear is a good thing, it is all of your senses working in concert to help you achieve the best possible outcome.

Being fearless is never the goal.  Fearless people in any endeavor are really scary.  They either cannot fully process all of the risks or chose to ignore them.  I don't admire fearlessness, it makes me cringe.  It is like watching someone run across 6 lanes of traffic. 

So stepping over the threshold is something I understand and it is a skill I use a lot.  There are a lot of things that will not kill me that scare the crap out of me.  Like my hero -Virgil I Grissom, I accept that that I will feel that fear and let it go at that.  I know that walking up to step over the threshold is a lot less scary than looking at that threshold from a distance. 

And now you are both have all those thresholds to step over.  They will always be scary.  Every time you experience this, you begin to recognize the pattern.  You will also start to understand how much easier to cross those thresholds rather than to observe them from afar.  If you look at a threshold too long it can be debilitating.  The ones that you do not cross (and should) will take on a life of their own.

Remember the goal is never to be fearless.  The goal is to cross over them and gain the experience of doing so.  You are not supposed to know this stuff...you are supposed to be finding out about it.  There is real joy in doing this. Never forget to enjoy being a participant instead of an observer. 

And in four short days you will be home.  No thresholds there, just rest for your pumpkin heads. 

Love Dad