Why Must I Be Safe?

       Have you ever sat down to eat something like a pie and then began imagining all the things that could go wrong either in its consumption, or as a result?
I have.
Sure, I make most of the pies I eat, but even so, every now and again, I am staggered by the sheer number of things that could possibly go wrong in any given incident. For example, do you know how easy it is for a person to choke? All it takes is a little breath while swallowing.  Sure, most of us have nearly choked and coughed it up, no harm, no "fowl," ;)  but in such instances, what made it to your windpipe is so small it's negligible. If something the size of a blueberry made it, you'd choke and very likely die. The Heimlich maneuver isn't foolproof.
 There are other things too. You could suddenly have an extreme allergic reaction to something and asphyxiate before help was brought. You could  eat something bad and get food poisoning. Oh, and don't forget, people have been known to commit mass murders by purposely poisoning food and water.
If you think about it for too long you begin to realize that eating really isn't very safe at all.

Let's look at another example.

        Statistics vary greatly but all of them put the number of fatalities in car crashes at over one million per year. That's more than the number of cancer deaths per year which cancer.gov puts at a little over one-hundred thousand, and far exceeding gunshot deaths, averaging about thirty-six thousand per anum.
        Think about that. Driving is highly unsafe, my friends, and yet most people in the world willingly drive every day without a shadow of fear or trepidation.

         Let's also not forget all the fluke deaths out there. The ones that nobody could have predicted, and nothing foolish could have been eliminated.

The perfectly healthy, energetic woman in her twenties trips on absolutely nothing, hits her head on concrete and dies several hours later from brain hemorrhaging.

The man on the bicycle is riding down a steep hill, looses control for half-a-second, flips over and breaks his neck.

The middle aged woman stabs herself with a kitchen knife while preparing dinner.

The child sticks something metal in the electrical outlet and gets burn scars that will accompany him to his grave, perhaps the electrons will kill him right then and there.

The business executive falls down the stairs and lands on his head.

The performer accidentally walks off the twenty foot high stage.

The seven foot Steinway grand piano's legs give out during a performance and the full weight of the thing comes crashing down on the pianist's knees.

...Need I continue?

We live in an unsafe world, any of us could, realistically, die at any moment just by leaving our houses, just by setting out on the daily commute...just by eating breakfast.

     I have heard  people speak about the importance of safety all my life, but I've heard it especially during this time. And I wonder, if safety is really first, shouldn't we live our lives in sanitized test tubes? I don't mean to make any derogatory comments about people being controlled by fear, and all that nonsense. However, it would be logical, if we really make safety the number one, that we should be consistent. How else to truly put safety as our primary goal? I think you've all seen the "Safety is my goal" sticker on the back of many utility trucks.
     This sign makes me laugh because is someone, driving a lethal weapon, claiming that safety is his goal. Yes, I know they mean that they're going to try to drive as safely as possible, but the fact still remains that safety can't really be the goal of driving, otherwise we shouldn't drive.

       The more I see of life, the more I wonder about safety as any kind of priority. I once overheard people talking about someone suggesting we ban swings at parks because children could get hurt. I wanted to jump in and say we should ban parks because children could get hurt, and nobody should let his child out of the house, because he might get hurt.
         Yes, comparatively speaking, more accidents happen on swings, then on, say slides, but if we ban swings as the most unsafe toy on the playground, how long before the slides go next? Then that fun little bar, where you grab the handle, pick up your legs and go sliding across to the other side? How long before we scrap the stairs and spirals and all we have is a circle of wood chips and a few benches shaped like cartoon animals?

         You see, I've begun to wonder if it's not really safety that we're using wrong, but our definition of safety. For example, if we just tried to get rid of any situation where people could die, we'd end up sitting in our single story, slab foundation houses all day, with hardly any furniture, no cooking equipment, and food that comes in plastic packets that you poured down your throat after examining it for two hours under a microscope.

        If we tried to eliminate any situation where someone could get hurt, we can just start planning for a life in conscious stasis.
        No family get-togethers, no picnics, no sports, no dancing, no hiking, no reading(you could damage your eyes), no walking(you could break a toe.) Basically, we cannot function.

      What do I conclude from all this? In a word, we cannot prevent death, and we cannot stop suffering. We live in a world where both are inevitable and will universally attack every single person on the planet.

      So what do we do?
          What we need is some other principle by which to define our lives that has nothing to do with safety. Something that looks out for ours and other's best interests while not going overboard, something that defines safety properly.
          Now we run into another problem, who defines safety and what is overboard? I have certain precautions in place that many would consider suffocatingly stringent. Others would not dare do things that I would be furious if I was forced to forgo. We all agree there should be a standard, but what is that standard, and from whom are we to get it?

          I think the Psalmist has it right when he says,
                       "In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety."  ~ Psalm 4:8

         Notice the word "alone." He seems to be saying that God is the only one who can keep us safe. Isn't that intriguing?
Not people, not a prearranged set of rules or guidelines, not your own preferences, God alone is in charge of your safety.

         It seems to me in the end, as funny as this sounds, that whether we die, or stub our toes, or get cancer, is somewhat inconsequential, at least when it comes to making decisions.

       
         When we make decisions, these should not be our primary concerns, either for ourselves or anyone else. Instead of asking "Is it safe," we should ask, "Is it good, is it lovely, is it right, is it true, is worthwhile, is it of good repute, is it honorable, is it just, is it loving?"

           When we concern ourselves with these things rather than with ours or other people's safety directly, we will be as safe as we ought to be and no more than that. Safety would revert to its rightful place on the totem pole and we could live useful, productive, and joyful lives that bring light and beauty to the people around us.

           When you read this post please do not imagine that this is a passive aggressive attack on certain governmental decisions regarding That-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named. No, these are my observations based on all of life, and whether my comments judge those decisions is neither my intent or my focus. The current situation only brought to the forefront of my mind something which I have been considering for several years now.
          I ask you to consider my argument for what it is not for where it could be coming from or what it might imply.

         Why do I post these thoughts when I know that many people might and probably will take them the wrong way and impute to me motives that I never intended?
Because safety is not my goal.
         My goal is to glorify God and serve my neighbor, and after those two criteria are past I leave my safety in God's hands where it belongs.

       I'm going to close with a piece of music that has very little to do, outwardly, with the topic of conversation. I'm posting it because it's lovely piece, that makes me think about beautiful things. If you haven't heard it yet, please listen to it. I think you're missing out on a very sweet section of life if you've never gotten to really listen to Frederick Delius' Florida Suite.

      Delius wrote this as somewhat of a tribute to a time he spent managing an orange grove in Florida before his music career took off. He wrote the piece when he was in Leipzig, and was German in origin, but obviously, Florida remained an important part of his life.

    

          

    Don't live safe lives, my friends, live good ones.

          ~ Christianna