A friend of mine suffered a compound fracture falling off a jungle gym when I was in fourth grade. He fell about eight feet onto asphalt.
It taught everyone in my class the danger of gravity and after we got over the cool sight of the bone sticking out of his arm, we were far more careful when climbing up high.
Oh, his arm still works fine. ...and he has a cool scar.
Boys, especially, need to do dangerous things and learn real life lessons. I’ll never forget crashing my bike while riding down a steep hill with no helmet or pads. The pain was instructive.
If you never get hurt, you never learn from your mistakes.
When in the 6th grade I tried a cool stunt, riding a bicycle hands free, that I’d seen many a buddy do.
Unfortunately my personal sense of balance was not up to the task. Down I went and skinned a shoulder. Then came riding back home but without trying that again.
Mom was horrified at the sight and gave me an entire blueberry cobbler that she’d been baking for dinner. I didn’t refuse it LOL. Dad had been riding along with (that’s another story) and once he verified no broken bones, he was like, what’s the big deal.
Another time Dad and I were riding together and Dad came to a stop putting his foot down on what he thought was terra firma, but actually was a culvert. Flip, and Dad was upside down in the culvert. “DAD! ARE YOU OK!?!?” Dad just said something like get that damn bike off of him, and I kind of helped him get it out of the culvert. Not a peep out of him otherwise... a real stoic.
Perhaps this explains Occupy Wall Street crowds, at least the younger ones. No one ever told them no until hiring managers said it. Result: “the world isn’t like this” and denial, or “the world is bad so overthrow it” anger or “I tried and didn’t get it so go home and give up” boomerang young adult in the basement.
“If you never get hurt, you never learn from your mistakes.”
Profound. Deeply profound.
You, in one sentence show the danger of Liberal Utopianism. The Left tries to shelter everyone from hardship by moving the playground or the job or earning a living to not be at a price.
I think Conservatives understand that human nature is about risk, both body, mind and soul. We avoid pain as human beings (save those S & M freaks) but inevitably there is loss, death, disappointment and failure.
The Liberal lives in a perfect, soft-floored, slow-slide, no sharp edges playground, shielded from the pedophile that lurks in the adjacent street that they fought to not have “stigma”.
You learn by trying and not achieving, then figuring it out and perservering. Kids today are not allowed to fall and when life slams them post-HS or college, they have never know defeat or hardship, and cannot function.
Great observation.
Bravo.
I must have been about 10 or 12 when a pal and myself were riding bikes out to my grandmother’s. I heard a car coming up from behind and went into ‘stupid kid mode’. I figured I’d help out the driver by moving over into the other lane. He moved over too to go around. Bike was twisted and I got a chunk taken out of my elbow plus some other dings. The guy loaded up me, the bike and my buddy and delivered us to my grandmother’s. No ambulance, no lawsuits.
To this day I always take a quick look over my shoulder before moving into possible traffic, even in the grocery store!
My brother found out the hard way that flying over the handlebars could lead to a very painful personal injury. We still tease about the doctor cutting it off...