Risk-Averse or Risk-Taker?

You know what’s amazing?  What people will do in order to get what they want.  I will say that generally-speaking, most people will not do what they want to do, say what they want to say, for a variety of reasons, although in the end, all those reasons, in my opinion, collide at one point: fear.  Most people are just afraid of what would happen if they truly express themselves, even if it meant that they would have a ton of bricks lifted off them.  Now, there are many things that we, as a species, shouldn’t do to each other, as it would not be condusive to our future as a species, such as murder (in all its forms, barring self-defense – but I guess we could debate on that justification for murder later).  If someone has an impulsive urge to kill, they should be treated either with medication or with a life-long trip to an iso-chamber at a bigtime prison.  And if they do kill… well now, why keep such negative genetic traits in the global pool?  Castration should be a compulsory punishment across the board for anyone who commits murder, as they’ll be unable to spread their genetic defects to future generations – on top of throwing them in jail.

Hmmmm, I think that’s a subject worth discussing – but not right now!  What a tangent!  It’s great when you get in a conversation that just flows like the stream of consciousness to the point where subjects just switch up on the parties without entirely realizing it… and when you do, you’re so far down the river that you don’t recall what got you there to begin with.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, stop it!  Back on track – this is a rail shooter, damnit!!!

Now, as I was saying, people doing what they want… most don’t.  If I take all the actions I’ve taken over just the last few years leading up to today, I would say that I’ve been shifting to the right of the bell curve – that is, I’ve been doing more of the things that I want to do and not be constrained by my fear of consequences for those actions.  My rationale for where I now stand today is pretty simple: If you feel you’ll regret not doing something, why not do it?  As life’s been teaching me (in heavy doses, I must say), there isn’t enough time to sit on your hands when they want to shoot out and make a painting, grip a steering wheel and drive, or reach out and tell someone how you really feel.  Sure, if you have no doubt that what you won’t do will bother you, I don’t think there’s a reason to worry about that sort of inaction – like watching someone get hit by a train.  The one time I’ve seen the end-results of such a thing (14th Street / 8th Ave A/C/E line about six years ago), the first thing I wanted to do was take pictures… but my camera was dead, so I just stood there and stared at the royally-fucked carcass, half of which was mangled beyond recognition and the other half I suppose covered by two train cars closer to the tunnel entrance.  Quite a site – and a smell – that I’ll never forget.  But that’s more of a situation that one has no control over.  So, if you meet someone that you find attractive, but don’t really care one way or another about them beyond friendship, then you wouldn’t have any regrets about not asking them out on a date because it was never something you were concerned with.

The main problems – and that element of fear – come into play when you are presented with a situation where of the two outcomes presented, one being the easier of the two, but you’d regret not taking the higher-risk outcome.  The problem here is the riskier outcome has a greater payout for success or failure, but then at least then you wouldn’t regret not making that decision.  But then the thought occured to me that one risky behavior can chain into other reactions that could be worse than if you did not take the higher-risk outcome.  Maybe you’d regret what would follow versus regretting not taking the original action in the first place.  A great example of this is cheating on your spouse.  If you take that big risk, then what could happen in the future could be way worse than if you had not committed the high-risk behavior, such as the dissolution of your relationship with your spouse and potentially worse, especially if you have mutual friends.

How does all of this apply to what I was saying about myself?  That can be something for another post, as that can get messy and most likely a much longer read than this.  SO… I will conclude with this fitting quote by Whittier:

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”

I’ll be back soon!  In the meantime, introduce some Porter into your life.