Risk, Not Safety, Guaranteed

You might have noticed. In life, risk is guaranteed, but safety never is. Risk is part of life. Risk is natural. Safety might be desirable, but assuming that safety is always preferable and consistently deciding in favour of safety over any risk will lead to insularity, fear, conservatism, and, ultimately, stasis. No oceans would ever have been crossed, no engines designed, no skies navigated, and no satellites launched if risks had never been taken. And, of course, high risks return high rewards. Heroes are risk takers. Pioneers seek risk and places bear their names for eternity. History forgets the cautious.

A few years ago, I watched a great movie: Safety Not Guaranteed. The name of the oddball genius character gave me a wry chuckle: Kenneth. Strange to hear my name said so often by Americans in a movie, and used on a very interesting character – whose eccentricities are all fully redeemed by the way! I always thought my name was a dreadful handicap, a relic of the 1940s that never had a moment of cool to its credit. Although the Kenneth in this movie isn’t much of a philosopher, several of the movie’s themes touch on existential issues: the fallacies of assumption, the value of recognising the transient nature of our being, and the need to live our lives in the eternal present, wringing from them every drop of joy we can and even savouring the notion of our demise for the quality it gives those moments.