Oh Oh, Stranger Danger :0(

Yesterday morning I rode in with Cynthia to her office..Ok, Not in the buggy but her car.

I sat in the passenger seat with my backpack on my lap. I looked at her like a happy elementary child heading off to school and said

“Thanks for the ride Mom you’re the best”

Just about then, we came up behind a big yellow school bus and Cynthia said without skipping a beat

“Ok, I will catch it at the next stop so you can get on and won’t be late”, she said laughing

I saw a car come up behind us very quickly and pass dangerously ,the usual morning VIP ‘SUV’ rush for Starbucks.

“Uh Oh stranger Danger” I said

We both started laughing as we remembered how Stranger danger had been drummed into us back in school.

Then a thought struck me (and after I recovered from the blow ) I realized that saying had been drummed in to every kid in America and had inadvertently been the catalyst for a lot of fear that would carry over into adult hood.

Ok, I want to back up. Cynthia had been reared in the USA and Argentina I had been raised in Ireland and had never or rarely heard the term don`t talk to strangers or Stranger Danger. Maybe it was because I was such a messed up kid and never listened, so it was one curse I was free of.

Besides we Irish new our neighbours ,they were the English and we sent them to America where they became ‘Dangerous strangers in red coats’ …Just kidding ..could not resist..its that Irish humor I have been blessed with :0)

So, think about this with ‘Stranger Danger’ as one of the foundations in your childhood is it any reason that people do not talk to strangers to day and thus create false images of the person or people groups in their heads.

Since I arrived in the United States in 1987, I have become very used to being the one to break the ice in a conversation or saying HI, Morning and so on. Just figured Americans were very cold at first but warmed up once you got to know then.

Then couple that with the fact that many of us move so much because of work we rarely settle in to a neighborhood invoirement and even if we do we have brought ‘Stranger danger’ with us in the back child seat well secured.

So next time you’re talking to God ask him if there are any 'stranger dangers' in your closet that need to be expelled so that you can be released from that fear and who knows maybe you will get to know that lonely neighbor after all!!!!!

Anyway just thoughts that have been passing through my mind on this cold rainy morning in Portland Oregon, boy I Miss Maui: 0(

I know I have just been rambling, but it sure is something to ponder my fellow Yankee :0)