Risk and responsibility in life

Life is full of risk, something that everyone knows. A brick could shatter your skull if it dropped from a construction site while you happend to be passing by on the street. Wall Street shenanagans could empty your bank account at any time. A supervirus could get you.

Every choice (either financial, or in terms of how you spend your time, pick your friends, or choose your life path) involves a large degree of risk. At the same time, we all have responsibilities...to our parents, to our society, to our friends and relatives and offspring (if we have them). Responsibily demands a certain attempt at stabilty in one's life. At the same time, the refusal to take risk can also lead to destruction.

I am responsible, to some extent, for the wellbeing of my family and society. This makes me loathe to take on excess risk. At the same time, life is inherently a risky proposition. How do you balance the need for stability borne from responsibility with the need to take risks, and, indeed, the inherent risk of life itself? Sometimes I feel these two factors grinding uncomfortably against one another in my psyche, causing extreme discomfort. I'm curious about other's ways of handling these two seemingly contradictory aspects of life.

Recently I was thinking about this.

We left the physical womb, but there's the psychological womb. We are in a time where the speed of information and transport are waaaaaaaaaay greater than 100 years ago.

Yet, we don't leave home. Literaly. Or we live home for a radius of no more than 10 km.

Confort is in the opposite side of Power. I'm getting comfortable with discomfort. That's when I grow.

Reading about Stocism, "the art of death", gave me more stamina to live.

Believing that my soul is imortal is also a relief to live a more fullfiling life.

"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero" - Fight Club

[edit on 13-11-2009 by infobrazil]

Im sorry I cant give you an answer to solve your psychological conflicts, although I would refer you to the Tao.

I can however tell you how I deal with responsability and risk, and in this aspect I think Im really different from almost everyone I know. Most people would call me many things and even attack me for exposing my ideals in relation to this topic, but I dont care, I will risk it (and these last two sentences actually synthesize all that I will say next).

I feel that I have no responsabilities at all and I actually try to avoid them as much as I can. The only responsability that I feel that gets me heavy is to be integral. By this behavior I expose myself to all risks. But why would I do such thing? For two reasons. I cant stand postmodern life. And I believe in the concept of destiny, in which everything that happens is meant to happen. So in reality there are no risks for me, nothing to lose, everything to still experience, even death would be enjoyable, curiosity drives me.

To give you a little background. I recently dropped college and am going in a few weeks to asia with a backpack. I have no idea how long Im staying. I dont want to think about time. Time brings responsabilities. Risk is all that life is and I want to live.

Respect Geladinhu. What I don't got was what is "integral" for you?

I have to have both. I was responsible as a parent and wife to take care of my children and keep the house going. I took care of my parents in their elderly years and lived with my mom until she passed. Now, since I live alone, I must have pets to be responsible for (and they are company too). If I didn't have my animals, I would completely go insane. I am not always good at responsibility, I mismanaged a lot of money and now it is gone. Maybe because of risks I took or maybe I just didn't know how to manage money. I had a helluva time though.

Risks are important to me too. I get a thrill when I am risking something that could possibly ruin me as a respectable citizen. But, that is enough talk about that. Gambling is my favorite risk.

Just deal with responsibility as it comes. Stay away from risks I would say.

reply to post by silent thunder


Your post is what I've been experiencing for some time now, and I too would like to know the answers. S & F for you.

Know in life what you need.

Get it.

Know in life what you want.

Get it.

Those are all the risks you need to take.

Hopefully in Spring time, I will be going on a tandem sky dive...now, statistically the risk is not that much, but plenty of people are already calling me crazy for wanting to jump out of an airplane.

My personality is go big or go home. I will take the risk to hit that number one spot...whatever it may be.

Hell...risk is for those who can not manipulate events. Yeah, freak accidents can happen, but whatever.

Never be scared.

Originally posted by FritosBBQTwist
Know in life what you need.

Get it.

Know in life what you want.

Get it.

Those are all the risks you need to take.

Hopefully in Spring time, I will be going on a tandem sky dive...now, statistically the risk is not that much, but plenty of people are already calling me crazy for wanting to jump out of an airplane.

My personality is go big or go home. I will take the risk to hit that number one spot...whatever it may be.

Hell...risk is for those who can not manipulate events. Yeah, freak accidents can happen, but whatever.

Never be scared.

Seems that If one overcomes the fear of death, there's nothing left to fear. A friend of mine is not afraid of approaching strange woman, specially after
he did skydiving.