Recently a young woman was thrown to her death when the attachment of the bungee cord was carelessly overlooked. This blog is not about the carelessness of those she must have trusted to do everything right. It is a reflection on why she chose to bungee jump in the first place. Assuming that her bungee jump had gone perfectly, why would anyone want to do that?
In making the decision to Bungee jump, was she reckless or was she careless, after all, she had depended on the capability of others to do everything right. Was there any reason to believe she was at least partially at fault. The distinction between being Reckless or being Careless is defined as if you know that what you are about to do is dangerous and you do it anyway, that is reckless. In contrast, if you cause danger or negligence, without actually intending to be dangerous, you are simply Careless. While that definition may make sense in some situations, it seems that in many cases it is inadequate. Each of us has a brain, and if it is scary enough to activate your awareness that what you are about to do is scary, ignoring what your brain is telling you is more than negligence! In the case of the woman thrown to her death, she had to have known the risk of danger but put her faith in others. Was that simply careless?
Returning to the real issue, why are people willing to put themselves in dangerous situations? The answer apparently is that such situations trigger a fight or flight response, which triggers an adrenaline rush, which then creates a profound sense of euphoria.
As examples, people at an auction who keep bidding well past their budget might be called Careless. People on a motorcycle weaving through highway traffic at a high speed cannot claim carelessness, in my opinion. Yet, both of those were given as examples of carelessness as I did my research.
Getting carried away at an auction and, bidding past your intention may fit the definition of carelessness. Even that may cause harm to others, especially if the bidder is a family breadwinner for others. In the case of the biker, he is threatening not only his own injury or death, but he is risking the same possibility of others. That is more than simply carelessness.
While I was busy patting myself on my back, thinking that I had never done any such things, an old memory crowded its way into my blog. I was a new kid in that High School, eager to make friends. One evening, I piled into a car 'dragging main', That was fun, until someone had the bright idea of raiding a farmer's watermelon patch. I am a farmer's daughter, and I knew better, but I said nothing, foolishly thinking the farmer wouldn't be upset about kids swiping a watermelon. We found the melon patch, and we all tumbled out of the car, but the boys were not looking for a ripe melon to take back to town to eat. Instead, the boys began taking more melons than we could eat.
The farmer's porch light went on, and we ran for the car, the farmer's language shouted at us nearly as frightening as the shots from his rifle. Whether he intended to be shooting over our heads or not, we plunged into the car and took off, the boys bringing melons into the car. I was ashamed of myself. What made it worse was that when we reached town, the boys rolled the windows down and began launching melons out the windows to splatter in the streets. They had never intended to eat the melons. Had I been Reckless or Careless, and did it make any difference whether the farmer was shooting at us or over our heads? I learned many lessons that night that I never forgot.
That poor young woman who chose to bungee jump for whatever reason never had the chance to learn a lesson. Those young men who never intended to cause her death that night were Reckless, despite the fact that they never intended to cause her death.
I shared two stories, both about young people making poor choices. When someone said, 'let's go steal a watermelon,' I should have said 'please let me out.' My foolish choice taught me a lesson I never forgot. Unfortunately, the young woman who fell to her death never had a chance to learn her lesson. Maybe this blog will be read by someone who can avoid a bad choice without having to learn it for themselves.
