Dear all,
there are lots of situations about which I still don't know if they were really dangerous or not, but they were all stupidly self-inflicted, such as trying out the physical limits of a sailplane (when I was sixteen) or getting carried away by the police after a bar fight in my first week in N'Djaména (when I was twenty-three) or giving birth to triplets in some forlorn place in South Ecuador (when I was thirty-three) or getting stung by a used syringe full of dried blood doing waste analysis on Baku landfill (last year)...however, none of these really made me afraid, and certainly none would have been solvable by aikido
I was several times scared shitless in airplanes, when they had problems to land due to thunderstorm (once over Ankara; the plane was 300 m or so above ground, the thunderstorm was over the airport, and the plane was flying circles around a big, black cloud that went down to the ground, passengers praying and hoping the cloud would go away before fuel was finished) or to technical problems. I was terribly afraid during the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, when we hurried out of the house thinking it might collapse over us, seeking shelter from downfalling bricks under the portail of the French consulate and being sadly disappointed that no one had the glorious idea to let us into their completely earthquake-safe park...and I am still very afraid that another, bigger earthquake shall strike Istanbul soon.
Another situation that was in my opinion horribly dangerous was when I tried to get out of a province train in Germany at a deserted station, at 02.30 in the morning, two kids are sleeping in the chariot, two others already got out of the train, when the doors close, squeeze me and the chariot back, train starts going, me with two kids inside and two kids running desperately to catch the accelerating train and get in again. I forced the door open and jumped out of the train, being afraid that the two kids outside might fall under the train or whatever, leaving two crying girls behind the closing door. Luckily some other nightowl passenger was cleverer than I was and just pulled the emergency brake.
Still no aikido involved.
Three or four years ago, I took the last subway here in Brussels; the wagon was completely empty and I sat there quietly reading DER SPIEGEL, until a group of drunk male young German tourists came in, singing awful sexist songs and hollering drunkenly around. The see me, being visibly German with my German newspaper and a woman, so an ideal target, they circle around me and start singing things like "Women are an object to share, open your trousers, come on let's switch..." (in German, this thing rhymed, even if the rhymes were very bad), they were fourteen and I was alone. So again no aikido involved. I just continued reading my SPIEGEL and ignoring them completely, because what else could I have done against fourteen drunken thugs? After six or seven stops and an endless journey, luckily they got out.
So all in all, there have been some dangerous situations in my life, luckily no bullying in childhood, luckily none ever took a bad turn (not my merit, sheer luck), but certainly none where I could have used aikido.
Nevertheless, even if this is completely illogical, doing aikido still provides a feeling of being less vulnerable. And moreover, it is a source of happiness.
Best regards,
Eva