Letters to an Imaginary Grandson (IX)

Should you avoid risks, or take risks? Neither and both. You should be aware of what is a risk and assess that risk before choosing whether to go for it or back off. Consider the consequences if it going optimally or going wrong. Consider the secondary and tertiary consequences as well as the obvious one. Can your decision to take the risk be undone, walked back from? Or will you be stuck with it for years, or for life?

"Quid quid agis, prudenter agas, et respice finem," as my mother, who died exactly ten years ago today, would tell me. "Whatever you do, do it prudently/wisely and consider the end result/the outcome. As a child, I'd question the word 'whatever'. Does this literally mean every single thing you do? If so, your brain would fry from having to consider every possible possibility whenever doing anything more challenging than breathing or blinking.

Well, yes. Even if momentarily. The chosen course of action could go wrong, or it could bring reward. Half a second's conscious thought is a better guide than no thought at all. Intuition is a good guide to follow, even better than thought. There's the danger of over-thinking things, 'paralysis by analysis'. Better to find yourself 'in the flow', that blessed state when your consciousness is aligned with the Purpose of the Universe and everything naturally falls into place.

Consider why you are interested in taking the risk. Good reasons? Or bad ones (seeking glory, riches, luxury)? This should be an important filter.

With age comes experience, the bitter-sweet experience of risks taken or avoided, and it becomes easier at 65 to assess whether an upcoming risk is worth taking or not than at 15 or 20. But as a young man, with a lifetime of decisions ahead, being able to identify risks in the first place is essential. Ethics stand as a useful filter. Don't take what doesn't belong to you. You may think you can get away with it, maybe you can, maybe you can't. However, it's not about the risk of getting caught –  theft is morally wrong and legally sanctioned. 

Moving to Poland with a young family in 1997 was a risk, though less of a risk than in 1990. The decision proved to be absolutely the right one. 

[Incidentally, following on from yesterday's post: went to bed at 21:30 yesterday (22:30 summertime) and got up at 05:00 today (06:00 summertime), seven and half hours in bed, nearly all of it spent sleeping.]

This time last year:
Valencia and manmade climate change

This time last year:
On death

This time four years ago:
Improvements on the Radom line

This five years ago:
Rural rights of way, revisited

This time six years ago:

Cause of death

This time seven years ago:
Opole in the late-October sunshine

This time eight years ago:
Work begins in earnest on the Karczunkowska viaduct

This time ten years ago:
Sublime autumn day in Jeziorki

This time 11 years ago:
CitytoCity, MalltoMall

This time 12 years ago:
(Internet) Radio Days

This time 13 years ago:
Another office move

This time 14 years ago:
Manufacturing a City of Culture

This time 15 years ago:
My thousandth post

This time 16 years ago:
Closure of ul. Poloneza

This time 17 years ago:
Scenes from a suburban petrol station