re: #270 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

I am seriously acrophobic despite being a pilot for most of my life. CN Tower has a sizable glass floor that you (NOT I) can walk on. When we there some years ago, my wife teased me about not even being able to get close to the edge while toddlers were out playing on it. Well, toddlers do a lot of things I wouldn’t do, like eat bugs and crap in the bath water. As for the insane adults who were out on the floor, I attributed this to a lower state of evolution. Fear of heights was an obvious survival trait once our ancestors had adapted to life on the ground rather than in the trees. Those revered ancestors who were not afraid of heights soon fell out of a tree or trundled off a cliff before they could beget little anthropoids.

Meanwhile, I have no trouble flying in planes, walking on glass floors high above the Earth, or peering out of tall buildings or over tall cliffs. But I get nervous climbing ladders. When I had to clean the gutters in my houses, it was a true profile of courage.