My father always told me, “Son, there are two types of risk: necessary and unnecessary.” After hearing about the stranded climbers on Oregon’s Mt. Hood, my first reaction was, “Well, is anyone really surprised?”
Look … it’s not that I don’t feel any concern for their safety, because I do. I don’t wish harm on anyone, but at the same time, I find it hard to be sympathetic to people who climb up a snow covered mountain in near freezing temperatures and then get stranded. This, as my father would say, is an unnecessary risk.
Life is not without risk and I admire the people, past and present, who take the risks most of us are unwilling to take, but only if that risk benefits mankind in some way. A scientist who risks going into the harsh jungles of South America to find that rare plant that has the building blocks upon which to develop a cure for cancer … that’s a risk that I applaud. Of course, there could be debate on whether that would be considered a “necessary risk.” In the grand scheme of things, it could be considered as such, but from a personal perspective, and that person’s family, it may be considered an unnecessary risk.
Other “unnecessary” risks include skydiving, bungee jumping and diving with sharks with or without a cage. These are things I will likely never do, especially now that I have a wife and son to think about. Plus, if you do those things on a regular basis, you’re going to pay quite a premium for life insurance.
Types of necessary risks include driving to work each day on highways with cars traveling in excess of 70 miles per hour, standing on a 20 foot ladder to clean your gutters, and changing your baby’s poopy diaper.
Sure, I’ll admit, I’m not as adventurous as others, but I’m fine with that. I like my quiet and relatively safe life. I have no desire to climb a 10,000 foot mountain in sub-freezing temperatures just so I can say, “hey, I climbed a 10,000 foot mountain in sub-freezing temperatures.” If ever had a conversation with someone who said that to me, I wouldn’t be impressed. Rather, I’d ask them, “Why? Why would you do that?”
I’m sure they’d respond with something like, “Well, I had to prove something to myself.” Ha! If you need to climb a snow covered mountain just to prove something to yourself, buddy, you have some serious emotional and/or self esteem issues in my opinion. How about this … if you really want to prove something to yourself, try living a normal life, because trust me, that presents enough challenges and opportunities to “prove something” to you yourself.
For example … when your boss micromanages you to death (not the situation at my current job), it presents an opportunity to prove to yourself that you can suppress the homicidal rage and/or the urge to say, “hey pal, screw you!” Because if you failed to prove that to yourself, you’ll be fired. Another example of an opportunity to prove something to yourself: you’re driving in traffic and some jerk (male or female) cuts you off and nearly rips your front bumper off and then has the nerve to give YOU the finger for going 75 in a 65 … in the far right lane … while they’re smoking a cigarette, talking on their cell phone and reading something on a piece of paper – and you must “prove to yourself” that you can restrain yourself from running them off the road and into a ditch before pulling them from their car and beating the living hell out of them just for being an asshole … that, my friends, is a true test of character.
So, if you’re reading this and you’re one of the few people in the world who can say, “I’ve climbed a 10,000 foot snow-covered mountain in sub-freezing temperatures,” I respond with, “Yeah? So what? I stood in line at the DMV for four hours to renew my driver’s license when there were only two people in front of me and I managed not to go postal and spend the rest of my life in prison.”
I’m not a violent man by nature – my friends and family will tell you that. But, I am human and as manners and human kindness to strangers becomes less prevalent in our society, it’s becoming harder and harder to see the good in life. But, we push on with hopes of a better future. Sadly, I don’t think we’ve hit rock bottom just yet.
In closing, the only things I need to prove to myself are: 1) that I can take care of my family; 2) be a good husband and father; 3) and do these things as a good Christian man. In this day and age, that’s more challenge and than most people can handle.
