Risks

IS the term 'well-thought-out risk' an oxymoron? Doesn't risk inherently entail stupidity and LACK of thought?...like the time I went for a tour of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and was told SEVERAL times that speaking to the opera singers, should we run across one, was VERBOTEN! But, they didn't tell me that I would run smack into my favorite opera singer at the time, Samuel Ramey, who was one of the world's best. And, our tour guide didn't know that it just happened to be my fortieth birthday that very day.

This won't surprise those readers who know me, but I realized that this was the chance of a lifetime for me, and I didn't want no stinkin' autograph either. So, was it a well-thought-out risk to approach him as he sat talking to nine other opera singers...and ask him to sing happy birthday to me? I didn't think so at the time...even as I walked toward him with our tour guide whispering and then shouting, "No...no,no, NO! You can't do that...no, no...come back here!"

Here's what sometimes happens when you take a risk...well-thought-out or not. Samuel Ramey looked at me, smiled and responded to my query..."How about we ALL sing happy birthday to you?" So, on my fortieth birthday, I was serenaded by 10 Metropolitan Opera singers with the silly happy birthday song. It never sounded so good!

I suggest taking both well-thought-out risks and then the ones that happen on the spur of the moment. You gotta have cojones for the spur-of-the-moment risks, but the rewards can be ten times sweeter because you don't have time to figure out what you want them to be.
kk

*****************************************************

Life itself is a risk everyday. You risk getting up in the morning but you have to. Anything could happen. You could stub your toe on the way to the kitchen to make coffee. You could spill the coffee grounds on the cat and singe your hand with the hot water from the sink as you fill the coffee pot and then you could drop the cup as you get it from the cabinet and then step on the shards of broken porcelain as you reach for the broom to sweep up the mess. The broom handle could falll forward and hit your head as you are pulling a piece of glass out of your foot and then it could land on the cat's water bowl and splash water all over the floor.

And all of that in the first 45 seconds after you dare to get out of bed on a normal, weekday morning. I'm not saying such things will really happen. You've got to trust that the world is plotting to do you good every day. That's what I do and please excuse me because I need to put a bandaid on my foot, butter on the burn on my hand and shake the grounds off the cat at the back door.

SalGal