no one lives forever.

You worry too much
You make yourself sad
You can't change fate
But don't feel so bad
Enjoy it while you can
It's just like the weather
So quit complaining brother
No one lives forever

I referenced this on Facebook today as a fun throwback to a song I liked from the 80's, but after I posted it I started to think about how it ties in nicely to a post I've been wanted to do.  It's a verse of an old Oingo Boingo song from the 80's and the message of that verse is what this post is about: worrying too much.  This is not an eat, drink, and be merry post.  This is a don't-let-fear-of-adverse-outcomes-cripple-you post.

I talked in inaugural post of this blog about seat belt laws.  They're well intentioned laws that take away our freedom in an effort to protect us from our own decision making.  (It's not to protect us from car accidents, because without seatbelt laws we could still use seatbelts just fine.)

Clearly, from that last statement, I believe seatbelt laws take away our liberty, but this is not intended to be a political post.  Let's leave the politics aside and just discuss the merits of avoiding risk voluntarily separately from the politics of mandating it.

Do seat belts have merit?  Absolutely.  Nobody doubts that they save lives.  What about air bags?  Yup, those save lives too vs not having them.  What about only taking public transit instead of driving?  It's safer still and it doesn't even have air bags and seat belts.  Am I a question talker?  Sometimes, but lets get back to the subject at hand.

What if we just never leave our houses?  We could earn our income over the Internet and have everything we need delivered to us.  In this day and age you could just about make that work and probably save money doing it.  I've even done it for a day or two at a time by shear coincidence when I consulted.  You don't have to travel at all, thereby eliminating all risk associated with travel.

Of course, there are risks at home too, as anybody who's ever been through a tornado or earthquake will tell you.   (Or that microburst that hit Provo a few years back.  Yikes!!!)

So now it's time to say I what I said from the outset this article was going to say: We can't let fear of adverse outcomes cripple us.  We have to balance risk with the reward.  Obviously, if something is actually dangerous then we should avoid it.  But what if it's something that is only infinitesimally dangerous?  Then avoiding it simply deprives us of life's experiences.

There are plenty of activities like horse back riding, rappelling, bungie jumping, hiking, biking, motorcycling, hunting, cliff diving, skiing, swimming, boating, flying, etc that involve an element of risk, but if done carefully these are very rewarding experiences.  That isn't to say nothing bad will happen, because there is always risk.  What I'm saying is experiences in life are worth some risk and if you haven't taken any risks then you haven't lived.


Don't let the nightly news paralyze you.  We are living in the safest conditions the world has ever known.  A child born in the US in 1850 could expect to live to 38, a child born in the US today is expected to live to 76.  (And that's regardless of whether eggs are good or bad this week.)  If you live the word of wisdom and exercise, you might even beat the average.

You want something to worry about ... don't worry about death, worry about how your going to pay for all those years of retirement.  Now that's scary!  :-)