Facing Up to The Consequences of Our Actions

I sometimes wonder why we seem so prone to ‘cherry picking’. I know that I am. I will construe and construct a great deal from a very few select facts. I do it on the fly. Sometimes it is possible to do this well; you can also fail miserably.

When I was a young boy, I was taught ‘proper’ hunting etiquette by my father and the older men. They made me carry an unloaded rifle for a season. I was to learn to look, listen and take care not to point the rifle at anyone. When I was careless, my ear was soundly thumped.

Try as I might, I had a hard time listening, seeing, and pointing safely. It just did not pull together for me during that first hunting season. Yet, the others could literally scan the signs and draw very probably conclusions. They could see, hear and move in one motion as it were. If we had not been able to do so as hunter/gatherers, we probably would not have survived as a species.

Yet, it is possible to misstep. You can read the indications wrong and wreck your day. You can, of course, destroy your life or that of the person standing next to you. I have seen it happen. A mistake is made and someone is no longer with you. A friend is lost. A companion gone. You are shaken to your core.

Can you ever make a life-staking decision again? You must. Life goes on.

Should you allow your child to be vaccinated? Should you sign the consent form permitting the operation your unconscious partner requires? Do you send your child on a two week camp a day’s drive away? Do you drive an extra hour before you stop for the night?

We pause with each question asked because the unthinkable does happen.

When it does, for the remaining span of our years, nagging thoughts can routinely undermine us. What if...what if I had?...would they?...I honestly do not know. Am I just hiding from the truth? Perhaps I simply cannot let myself know too much. These thoughts can haunt anyone responsible for another. P. D. James captured this ever so well in her novel, The Children of Men.

So, it should be no surprise to discover that an experienced commander and a young medical officer clashed over what they believed was the right action to be taken by whom on the 'Burma Railway'.