Risk? What risk?
We are all risk-takers simply by being alive. Every decision we make, every action we take, is fraught with risk and consequence. You assume getting out of bed is risk-free? That’s your first mistake, bucko. Your second is stepping on the cat when your feet expected the floor. Your third is reflexively jerking your leg up and ramming your knee into the night table. Your fourth is screaming an expletive-filled expletive which prompts the cat to screech and attack. Here it is, 6:00 a.m. and you have been awake all of 15 seconds. Already you have a throbbing knee, an angry cat, and deep vertical scratches on your thigh. Don’t be fooled, my friend. Risk is omnipresent.
Risk implies a potential for threat. Risk mitigation can help, but this requires thoughtful planning to help manage, limit, or eliminate conceivable setbacks as much as possible. It demands awareness. Forethought and a reasonable understanding of what the risk is, where the threat may come from, and what options are available is crucial. Sadly, 6:00 a.m. is not often a time rife with awareness. Maybe by 6:01 you are suddenly hyper-focused as you wonder if it is possible to shatter a kneecap on accent furniture, but that is a minute too late. If only you weighed the risk the moment your eyes opened you wouldn’t be planning a trip to the E.R. before daybreak. And therein lies the rub. We often take risks completely unaware that is what we are doing.
It would be crazy-making to first recognize, then plan for every conceivable risk. It is tough enough to deal with obvious risks. Who has the time to deal with elusive ones? Instead, in service to our sanity (and tight schedules) we bumble along and blissfully ignore many of the dangers waiting to pounce. Driving on shotty roads ready to collapse into sinkholes, strolling through gardens brimming with disease carrying insects, purposely eating a McRib®. Being super vigilant requires persistence. No one wants to spend their life assessing each risk, underwriters notwithstanding. If we did, we would never get out of bed. That may sound extreme, but your kneecap certainly agrees.
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Learn more about The Common Threads Project.
Trask Avenue
common threads #17: risk-taking
Posted: March 18, 2025 in Humorous Bits, Observations and CommentaryTags: Common Threads, humor, humour, risk
Risk? What risk?
We are all risk-takers simply by being alive. Every decision we make, every action we take, is fraught with risk and consequence. You assume getting out of bed is risk-free? That’s your first mistake, bucko. Your second is stepping on the cat when your feet expected the floor. Your third is reflexively jerking your leg up and ramming your knee into the night table. Your fourth is screaming an expletive-filled expletive which prompts the cat to screech and attack. Here it is, 6:00 a.m. and you have been awake all of 15 seconds. Already you have a throbbing knee, an angry cat, and deep vertical scratches on your thigh. Don’t be fooled, my friend. Risk is omnipresent.
Risk implies a potential for threat. Risk mitigation can help, but this requires thoughtful planning to help manage, limit, or eliminate conceivable setbacks as much as possible. It demands awareness. Forethought and a reasonable understanding of what the risk is, where the threat may come from, and what options are available is crucial. Sadly, 6:00 a.m. is not often a time rife with awareness. Maybe by 6:01 you are suddenly hyper-focused as you wonder if it is possible to shatter a kneecap on accent furniture, but that is a minute too late. If only you weighed the risk the moment your eyes opened you wouldn’t be planning a trip to the E.R. before daybreak. And therein lies the rub. We often take risks completely unaware that is what we are doing.
It would be crazy-making to first recognize, then plan for every conceivable risk. It is tough enough to deal with obvious risks. Who has the time to deal with elusive ones? Instead, in service to our sanity (and tight schedules) we bumble along and blissfully ignore many of the dangers waiting to pounce. Driving on shotty roads ready to collapse into sinkholes, strolling through gardens brimming with disease carrying insects, purposely eating a McRib®. Being super vigilant requires persistence. No one wants to spend their life assessing each risk, underwriters notwithstanding. If we did, we would never get out of bed. That may sound extreme, but your kneecap certainly agrees.
——–
Learn more about The Common Threads Project.
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