A while back, I fell off a horse (read that literally and without a helmet), blacked out, and forgot the trip from horse to ground. Its weird because to the left was a rock pile and to the right an electric fence. I came incredibly close to being mangled or dead. For weeks I’ve been brewing; trying to figure out how I feel about this. Here’s my dialog:
I should feel angry or scared or be upset in some way. Come on, I almost died! Any reasonable sense of survival should make me afraid of being near a horse, or riding in the car, or being involved in the myriad of dangerous activities people do from day to day.
But all I can feel is an awesome sense of satisfaction. I mounted that horse with the full knowledge that I was about to sit on a powerful creature with its own independent thought. One of the consequences is falling off and being hurt in varying degrees. I took 100% responsibility for my actions and I feel great! How many people take full responsibility for the situations in their life? Not many, as far as I’m aware.
Since this incident, I’ve realized that every action has potentially negative consequences. Walking along the street, cooking, driving, sexual intercourse; almost everything we do could be the last thing we do. Should I stop doing these things? Should I strive to live as safe a life as I can? Hell no.
Marc’s Life Lesson #10: With freedom comes risk.
Its not possible to eliminate risk from life. The best we can do is think our actions through and take responsibility, even when things don’t go the way we’d like.