Life is very much like a flu shot. There are dangers all around us as humans, but we as a species – try our best to prevent ourselves from acquiring pain in as many ways as possible.
The reasons why we get flu shots is to prevent acquisition of pain (in the form of the flu) later in the year.
The reasons we choose careers is to make the money necessary to prevent us from dying in the streets.
The reasons why we keep certain people close to us is so they can protect us when the times get tough and take care of us (and maybe do our laundry).
And yet, as much as we try to prevent things from hurting us, there’s always that slight possibility, and that’s why we end up taking risks in life that will hopefully gain us happiness.
I took students to an America’s Got Talent Taping earlier this week and it unfortunately ended way later than it should have. We got back to school by 11:15PM and many parents were upset. As painful as that was to my sleep patterns for the week, the risk was worth it if the kids enjoyed themselves, even if many of them ended up being groggy the next day of school.
The best part of life entails a combination of risk-taking behaviors and preventative behaviors (flu shots) to give us the best possible combination of potential for happiness. The key is to know which risks are worth it, which ones aren’t, and how we can continue to live our lives knowing that there is absolutely no guarantees one way or another.
