(Risk as exemplified in Snakes and Ladders)
Well, ain’t that the truth, from birth to death.
Think of how vulnerable to injury or death babies and preschoolers are.
Ponder the risks built into one’s day, whether this be stepping off a curb, riding in a car, eating toxic food, falling in the bathtub or on ice, falling down stairs, being admitted to a hospital with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, etc.
Consider the many unexpected things that can blind-side one such as suddenly getting a cancer diagnosis, losing one’s job, losing use of a leg or an eye, failing an exam, having parents who divorce, getting an unexpected electric shock, being stranded in a foreign country, etc.
Think about the risks built into friendships and relationships we think will last forever. (People change, grow, quarrel, separate, divorce. Often these days.)
Consider all the people who like to live on or ‘at the edge’ like gamblers, druggies, exhibition-ride-fanatics, parachutists.
Recall all the performers you like and have known and meditate on the many risks they take each time they perform.
Contemplate all the projects and plans you have shied away from because you thought them too risky in some way.
Writers, such as those who are honest and truthful, also take various risks as well, as in the case of writers who base fictional characters on real people who may then take umbrage if those people recognize themselves.
For that matter, watch birds and animals taking risks all the time as they go about their lives, something reflected in most nature tv programming.
Keep in mind, too, all that flying debris in space flying Earth’s way. In the long run, we here are most likely living on borrowed time. Lives of risk.
For me, it seems very clear, then. Life is risk for everyone and everything on the planet.
…………………………………………….
“And you all know security
Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.”
–Hecate, Macbeth (Shakespeare)