And What About Risks?

It was 4 PM yesterday.  I was famished on Guadalupe and 26th street.  Looking for lunch.  So I parked where ever I could but instead promptly got my car towed.  The cost - $193.80 plus whatever it took to get my car back from 20 miles away.  Finally, I returned at 8 PM to hear Indu fuss over my indiscretion: “why do you always do such risky things.  You know you can get towed over there.”  Not a very nice day after all. Not a nice day at all though I did get to talk with Gurcharan Das.

I have always found myself in risky situations every now and then. Like finding myself without a place to stand 12000 feet above ground - all alone.  Like 60 feet under water without the ability to see.  Like holding on to a truck on roller skates on a busy Indian road.  Like jumping out of a two story building with a bed sheet as parachute.  Like driving at 140 miles per hour on the autobahn.  Like being found on a highway without gas, in an unregistered car, without insurance, and without driver’s license.  You get the point. However, just so you know many of these were when I was more on the high side of the stupidity scale, which I am not any more.  Yet the lingering after taste continues if I do not watch out.

But on the other hand driving on the streets is risky too.  So is being alive.  So is starting a new business or changing jobs. Really, the only thing risk free is being dead.  Then what am I supposed to do about risk taking.  It is very confusing.

If I were Khalil Gibran, I’d say… And what about risks? And I think he would say: Take risks but don’t be stupid.  Stupid are those who take risk when nothing is at stake yet they are clueless about the chances.