The Preciousness of Life
I attended a safety meeting this past weekend where they made simple acts like walking steps or crossing the street seem like life or death situations. ExxonMobil is borderline OCD about safety, so I have been enduring these meetings on a regular basis since I started at the company. Thankfully they give some awesome prizes away at these meetings. But at this particular one, I started to think, at some point the concern for safety has to limit your life potential.
The amount of caution saturating our culture (American) is alarming. From seven airbag vehicles, to terrorist threat color schemes, to warnings of identity theft, the number of threats and precautions seems to quadruple annually. Should I simply stay at home on the couch with a fire extinguisher (most fire deaths occur at home) protecting myself from the unknown? From this past meeting, that seemed the only safe way to exist.
But really, I think our culture has placed entirely too much emphasis on healthy living and not enough on really living. What happened to getting outdoors, doing something mildly adventurous, meeting new people, getting a few scars… or better yet, understanding that the best way to succeed is sometimes to fall down, literally. Jill Scott says in one of her songs: Just because you have a nightmare, does not mean you stop dreaming. Likewise, if you get in a lot of car accidents, don’t just buy a car with a million airbags, learn to drive better.
Longevity is another obsession that I just never grabbed hold of. The idea of living till 80 or 90 is all fine and good, but what about getting the most out of life now. Too many people are not doing for themselves what they can do now, yet are worrying about 50 years down the line.
Safety like anything else can be taken too far (I am pretty sure that statement could get me fired), use everything in moderation. The entire presentation that I attended could be summed up by the following words: Don’t be stupid.
Aside: Real life dilemma. The ‘safest’ way to handle food here in Nigeria is to ship it in from the states from a source that you are completely familiar with. But is that 1) reasonable, and 2) any way to really get the most out of an experience. True you may put yourself in danger of sickness, but you gain a lot as well.
The amount of caution saturating our culture (American) is alarming. From seven airbag vehicles, to terrorist threat color schemes, to warnings of identity theft, the number of threats and precautions seems to quadruple annually. Should I simply stay at home on the couch with a fire extinguisher (most fire deaths occur at home) protecting myself from the unknown? From this past meeting, that seemed the only safe way to exist.
But really, I think our culture has placed entirely too much emphasis on healthy living and not enough on really living. What happened to getting outdoors, doing something mildly adventurous, meeting new people, getting a few scars… or better yet, understanding that the best way to succeed is sometimes to fall down, literally. Jill Scott says in one of her songs: Just because you have a nightmare, does not mean you stop dreaming. Likewise, if you get in a lot of car accidents, don’t just buy a car with a million airbags, learn to drive better.
Longevity is another obsession that I just never grabbed hold of. The idea of living till 80 or 90 is all fine and good, but what about getting the most out of life now. Too many people are not doing for themselves what they can do now, yet are worrying about 50 years down the line.
Safety like anything else can be taken too far (I am pretty sure that statement could get me fired), use everything in moderation. The entire presentation that I attended could be summed up by the following words: Don’t be stupid.
Aside: Real life dilemma. The ‘safest’ way to handle food here in Nigeria is to ship it in from the states from a source that you are completely familiar with. But is that 1) reasonable, and 2) any way to really get the most out of an experience. True you may put yourself in danger of sickness, but you gain a lot as well.
posted by Anthony Jackson at 8:14 AM
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