Tragedy

A program on NPR lately featured a man who had not listened to his feelings, his concern about a possible problem. And then "tragedy struck," a fire broke out and because some precaution had not been used, some fairly simple process put in place, a friend or relative died. A simple, avoidable tragedy resulted. This event is all too common in a time when people are overloaded with preoccupations and not focusing on basic necessities.

I was raised in a totally different time, of course, and part of that time insisted that things be attended to, that solutions to problems not be assumed. The Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepared" was a further redundancy on this, and it was drummed into us by successive scout masters; it was the mantra we were told to live by. Later in the Navy, we had drills to deal with fires, lifeboat use and the like, and late one night we scrambled to fight a fire in a hold which could have taken the ship in the mid Atlantic.

So I recently spotted a possible problem in a new home moved into by my Son and his Wife and children. I was hesitant to mention it, because in today's society it seemed like it might be "meddling," messing with someone else's business, their sovereignty. But I went back to the story on NPR, thought of that and felt I had to say something, even though there might be problems. The Boy Scouts are considered passe nowadays by many people, perhaps they and other avenues of advice and correction are too old fashioned in a time of rapid change and quick fix solutions.