Risk and Luck

Out of sight Out of mind. A plate that required absolutely no artistic skill whatsoever.

You can worry about this, you can worry about that, you can worry yourself so much that you don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. Though, there is good reason to worry about getting up. The number of people that have had accidents whilst putting on their trousers is unbelievable.

We could endeavour to live a life without risk but what is the fun in that. A risk free life may in itself be risky. You may avoid the risk of being rejected but that risks becoming lonely. I could sum it up by saying that if you don’t go out to gather food, you risk becoming malnourished. To obtain food you may have to drive somewhere. That entails risk. The most commonly mentioned risk is often said to be crossing a road. We can find a way of doing such things in a safe a way as possible. We can be alert to the dangers. Not only can we be alert, but we can reduce risks that aren’t balanced with sizable reward. Wearing a seatbelt reduces the chance of death immensely but doesn’t spoil the fun of the drive that much. Small changes around the home can reduce the risk of fires. I learnt something from sailing. There was a risk of drowning. There was a risk of colliding with rocks. The most common problem, however, was slipping over after taking a shower. Hold on to things when you have wet feet. Hospitals are full of people that have slipped and hit their head on basins.

Some of us do not see the dangers around them. Countless children have died by hanging. They were not hanged for being naughty but because the parents never understood that window blind pull strings are fun to wrap around one’s head. Tiny batteries burn holes in a child’s stomach. Shallow pools have the same threat to life as falling down a deep well. May I say to you this. Rather than fear every possible scenario, spend a little time examining the most likely threats. Not perceived threats but threats that are statistically relevant.

Bravado brings risk, risk that is usually coupled with a brief sense of achievement and little else. Your bravado ends up being someone else’s entertainment. Lots have attempted a jump from a balcony into a swimming pool below. Many managed to hit the concrete floor - quite pleasingly for those that wanted something to talk about. Most will forget your name, sometimes forgetting who it was that made the jump, but they will treasure the story. Bones positioned at comical angles, splinters protruding the skin. The ones that die or survive in a vegetative state add to the hidden tally of those, out of sight out of mind.

One might take a risk in the hope that a little gamble will improve our situation. It often will. We gamble, we bet, we trade and invest. All four seem different but are much the same. The comic that said an investment is a trade gone wrong understood something, something that we can learn from. Learning is key. Each risk is an education. We can learn more from taking risks and failing, than we can from years of schooling. We learn to spread the risk and learn to accept losing. No matter how lucky we are, we can’t win them all.

We take a risk when dating. We can be raped. We can be beaten. We can get pregnant. We may find ourselves hit with a false accusation. We can find a long-term lover. We can find magic. I wonder though if there is a correlation between attractiveness and risk. The more outwardly attractive someone is and the more desirable they seem, the more likely we are to be damaged by them. We put trust in them when others knew they are bearers of bad times. We can end up trusting no one, trusting nothing. Our trust evaporated because we didn’t bother to gather evidence. A small amount of due diligence, some thought, something would have told us what we need to know. However, some of us won’t accept evidence. Some of us are blinded by lust.