Just Because It Never Happens Doesn't Mean It Never Will

 

The other day my wife intercepted two very pretty young girls on their way to a rather isolated park near our house to play. When my wife sent them back to their mother with the warning that it was too dangerous they retorted, " Our mother lets us go there by ourselves – all the time – and nothing ever happens to us!"

That was echoed by their mother herself who came down at first very indignant at what she perceived as unwarranted meddling in her affairs. It was only when my wife refused to apologize and warned the women that just because nothing ever happens to her young children it doesn't matter it never will that she took her children back home.

This woman's overconfidence is not an isolated case and it all too frequently ends up with tragic results in many of our activities such as when:

• People get killed in vehicle accidents after they have run a yellow or red light because they have done it many times before and nothing ever happened.
  
• A policeman gets killed from a bullet shot through a door because nothing has ever happened before when he got careless and stood right in the centre of the doorway.
  
• A young women disappears while jogging through an isolated park trail by herself – which she has done many times before.
  
• A man walking along the sidewalk is gunned down by two men in a black car – that he has seen passing – many times before.
  
• A young woman is attacked and raped by a man she met in a night club she has met many times before and always seemed so sweet and warm.
  
• A trainer at one of the Seal World centres in the United States in dragged under the water and drowned by a killer whale -- she has worked with many times before.
  

You could go one with many other examples of this type of thing because we do it all the time – that is believe that because we have done something many times before that has the potential to be very dangerous but nothing ever happens – nothing ever will.

We do it because we get careless or take our safety for granted and it can have tragic consequences. When we do things we know we should not do but take the chance anyway.

A very good example of this type of thinking and the consequences is the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Somebody shut down an alarm system – because it wake the crew unnecessarily if it should go off.

Some are trying to say they don't know for sure if that action cost any lives but at the same time there is a good possibility it did. And what was the rationale behind that? Was it because they had done that many times before – and nothing ever happened?

Who knows! People who do these types of things are playing Russian roulette with their own or other peoples' lives. It is a dangerous and often tragic way to live.