Safety is for bodies

“Make America Safe Again,” said the signs and speakers on the first night of the Republican National Convention. The desire to feel and be safe crosses political boundaries; it informs a litany of human actions. Yet the very concept seems unexamined. What makes for safety? Is it the same as feeling safe? Is it the same as comfort?

Whatever else safety is, it is an experience located primarily in the body.

I rode my bicycle across the United States. Two skinny tires for thousands of miles through long stretches of Montana and North Dakota. This was before smart phones were everywhere. Seven years later and what feels like a lifetime older, it seems like such a dangerous thing, a woman on a bike through unknown U.S. roads.