Calculated Risks

Yesterday I talked about cognitive dissonance, and I’m doubling down.

I’ve read some stuff lately that scared me to death, and I don’t recommend you read them.

Here are the links, so you can likely ignore me:

Both of these talk about how humans are exceedingly fragile. The Reddit post—which you always have to take with a grain of salt—outlines quick ways that people can die. Redditors share some horrific (if true) stories about how they’ve lost loved ones.

These types of things freak me out and I’m certain many others feel the same. There are whole industries built around fear. There are whole lifestyles and identities around fear. It leads you to overthink and contemplate every decision. Paralysis enters your mind and sets in.

How can we simultaneously be capable of incredible feats of strength and survival, yet also succumb to seemingly trivial accidents? People have been known to have superhuman strength to lift cars in emergencies, survive severe head injuries (like good ol’ Phineas Gage), and perform seemingly supernatural feats. Yet, many have tragically perished from drowning in shallow puddles, sleeping in an awkward position, or simply turning their necks the wrong way too fast.

The point is existence is cognitive dissonance. Both things are technically true and not true, and we aren’t sure to what extent. Some people lean heavily on the side of fear, and others heavily on the side of risk. That’s why we have people who wear sunscreen and those who brave (read: stupid) the beach on a UV 12 day with no protection. From that sentence, I assume you can figure out which side I’m typically on.

However, it is way too easy to be paralyzed when you are the stick in the mud applying sunscreen every ten seconds. We have to become comfortable with some level of risk, particularly if we want to build and connect with other people.

There are people who will not meet anyone online because they think it’s 1990 and all strangers are murderers or something (to be fair, some are. more than they should.)

And there is always risk to letting anyone into your existence.

But every great thing in your life has come from risk. Everyone you love now (for the most part) was a stranger at some point.

So we have to find that healthy balance of not being fear-driven while still being reasonable and cognizant of precautionary measures that would be stupid for anyone not to take.

If you need some help, here are some two more positive slants to help balance out the (not totally incorrect) fearmongering:

I’ve recently sauntered through A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (affiliate link) and it’s a great read. It deals with these themes of being completely unprepared and being scared shitless. It’s astonishing to me that two out-of-shape guys who are not outdoorsy hikers simply walk thousands of miles, mostly eating noodles. This book feels too well-written for the content matter. It’s not about hiking, it’s about life itself. Bill himself has a personal fear of bears after reading about them ahead of time, yet shockingly seems to make no real attempt at trying to take precautions against the problem.

I hope you don’t end up in the hospital from a firework explosion.

Love always,

Your homie,

America,

Or else,

Jk,

Lucas