These are dangerous times. So say many in written words and songs. You can't let your guard down. Catch a virus; maybe nothing happens, perhaps you end up on a ventilator in a hospital. Wear a mask to the store for safety's sake. Then get told you're a coward by some guy with a gun, rallying for his right to live how he wants.
Then again, you can get in your car, be out on the road, and be seriously injured, or worse, by a careless driver. Go to the lake or river with friends to cool off and enjoy a summer day; step into a deep river hole or get a cramp, suddenly you're struggling to breathe. Get stung by a bee only to realize you are allergic to bee venom as you lose consciousness.
Nature is lovely but not necessarily loving, so many dangers in the woods, mountains and oceans. The injured dog you try to help bites you, infecting you with rabies. The ledge you stand on as you gaze in wonder at the valleys below suddenly gives way.
I'm not sure these days are any more dangerous than others. We have more protections now, presumably because we are more knowledgeable -- or maybe just luckier. No one is hauling us to concentration camps, or carpet bombing our cities. No sewage runs in our streets, infecting us with cholera. The scourge of polio is just a memory now.
Most of us avoid danger; we are not risk-takers. Others actively seek it out. It is what drives those who climb mountains, swim channels, race cars at dangerous speeds, and fly into oxygen-deprived realms of space. What is a risk to one is an adventure to another. Call it bravery or foolishness, but we all do it to some degree. I have never run with scissors, but I've done so with a chainsaw. I was running from a swarm of hornets. Faced with two types of dangers, I chose the safest, based on my experience. But what if I had fallen while fleeing the hornets, only to lose an arm to the running chainsaw?
I have done my share of stupid things. To this day, I wonder how I escaped the danger of some of my actions. I shake my head at the misfortunes of others, caused by nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- the college student killed in his car at a stop sign by a falling tree. A farmer's son trips and is run over by a tractor. A glass window falls from a skyscraper and kills a tourist on a sidewalk in Chicago. The list goes on and on. We try not to think about the dangers of living, but they are part of life. Tigers may not chase us in the pastures, but the specter of unknown risk regularly follows us. Now we face the prospect of living with another dangerous virus or face economic ruin. We can only hide so long from what Nature produces to stalk us.
Dangerous times, indeed. Tell me of a time that was not.
-- Devin Houston is the president/CEO of Houston Enzymes. Send comments or questions to [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 05/27/2020