How much security do you need?

[RegularGuy3]

I recently reviewe Mining for Alaskan Adventures Volume I, in which a family moves to remote Alaska to seek a living in gold from old mining claims. Their children were very young, and it did not sound like the move was out of desperation.

Don't worry--the family seems to do just fine in Alaska based on the stories in the book. But it got me thinking.

Moving for a career is fairly common these days. But would you have the courage to take such drastic measures to try to make your fortune, even if it meant isolating your family?

[DATo]

I personally think any man who takes his family to some remote wilderness like Alaska to live is out of his mind. Why would any sensible person place his family in a situation in which help could be unavailable in time of crisis and dangers which exponentiate the risks to his family abound? Yes, pioneers in every country had to live this way, but it was out of necessity, not choice. In most places they put parents in jail and take their kids away from them for less irresponsibility than this.

The answer to your question is this: LIFE IS NOT A FRIGGIN GAME!!!!! It is a very serious business. People who jeopardize their lives by jumping out of aircraft to skydive, bungee jump, race high speed cars etc do not have one iota of sympathy from me if they are killed or maimed. YOU NEED AS MUCH SECURITY AS YOU CAN POSSIBLY GET. And when you think you have enough you are just deluding yourself. This world has been trying to kill you since the moment you were born and there have probably been many times when you were close to death and didn't even know it. It is only because of all of the built in protections like immunizations, and law, parental love and national security that you may have beaten the odds thus far.

Any guy who takes his family to Alaska to live in the wild is a nutcase in my opinion.

[Lincolnshirelass]

I partly agree with you, Dato, and partly don't (sorry!). I totally agree about stuff like skydiving and high speed car racing (mind you, you're dealing with someone who once sprained her ankle falling over a magazine!). And yes, to UNNECESSARILY expose children to risk like that in the book is just irresponsible. But I also think you can't and shouldn't wrap children in cotton wool, nor be too swayed by emotive media reports when crimes against children are actually no different now than fifty odd years ago, and driving children everywhere is doing them harm in other ways - I'm convinced lack of exercise has far more to do with obesity than diet ever did. I have mixed feelings on immunisations. I think some are necessary, others advisable, but I'm not sure if the current trend for protecting every child from every illness just because you CAN is a good thing either. Yes, my typical painful position, on the fence!

[DATo]

I partly agree with you, Dato, and partly don't (sorry!). I totally agree about stuff like skydiving and high speed car racing (mind you, you're dealing with someone who once sprained her ankle falling over a magazine!). And yes, to UNNECESSARILY expose children to risk like that in the book is just irresponsible. But I also think you can't and shouldn't wrap children in cotton wool, nor be too swayed by emotive media reports when crimes against children are actually no different now than fifty odd years ago, and driving children everywhere is doing them harm in other ways - I'm convinced lack of exercise has far more to do with obesity than diet ever did. I have mixed feelings on immunisations. I think some are necessary, others advisable, but I'm not sure if the current trend for protecting every child from every illness just because you CAN is a good thing either. Yes, my typical painful position, on the fence!

No, no, no .... we think precisely alike. I honestly believe that part of providing security includes educating one's children to the need for it. Like you, I do not think children should be wrapped in cotton wool either. It is just as dangerous to overprotect children as to not protect them at all. There is a fine line between prudence and paranoia and each situation is different. But I do feel that many people today hold life cheaper than they did in the past and pay less attention to their own responsibility for their own welfare and the welfare of their kids. I am not a conservative, necessarily, where my political ideals lend themselves. I tend to straddle the fence politically between conservative and liberal; but, before the social programs instituted before WWII in the U.S.A. people understood that they themselves were responsible for their own welfare. Today if anything ail a man, even unto a pain in his bowels even, he forthwith sets about decrying the failures of the government while conveniently ignoring the fact that the pains he endures were caused by his own neglect in seeing to his and his family's own security.

You may be familiar with a television series which was quite famous in your own country called, Band Of Brothers. It is currently the highest rated television show in history on the Internet Movie Database. This show was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. It was the true story of American parachutists in WWII. One of the main characterizations represented in the series was a Major Dick Winters who was still alive at the time of the production. Tom Hanks consulted with him extensively while the show was being filmed and after it was done Hanks told Winters that he wanted to do a parachute jump just for the experience of it. The old former hero (for he is considered a highly decorated hero today) who had looked death in the face many times and survived looked at him strangely and finally said, "Is that all the regard you have for your life?" That pretty much sums up my point. There is a time for living dangerously because we have no choice, but if we fraternize with Mr. Death and his many minions of danger we do so at our own peril, and if we disregard our own security we have no one else to blame when things go awry.

[Lincolnshirelass]

Hi, Dato! You make some sound points, your political ambivalence mirroring my own With regard to health and welfare programs, I live, as you know, in the UK, which has the National Health Service, and generally speaking I think it's a good thing, but also get annoyed when people deify it and say (or at least imply) that other countries' systems are rubbish. The NHS is far from perfect - my Dad lost a leg due to medical negligence, so its failings have come pretty close to home for me.

With regard to dangerous pursuits, I can just about imagine (though it may well stop permanently in the realms of imagination) that I would do a parachute jump, in tandem, after training. At least I can see the appeal of it. What perplexes me is caving. The notion of squeezing oneself down dark claustrophobic narrow tunnels is the stuff of nightmares. And that's coming from someone with mining stock in the family - one rare instance where I say, if there's prejudice/laws against women working in the industry - LET IT STAY! Sometimes there is beauty to be seen at the end of the spelunking (I love that word, even though the practicalities of it horrify me) which I can sort of understand, but even though some of the underground crystals, stalactites and mites etc are spectacular, I will restrict myself to enjoying them on the telly!

[DATo]

Hi, Dato! You make some sound points, your political ambivalence mirroring my own With regard to health and welfare programs, I live, as you know, in the UK, which has the National Health Service, and generally speaking I think it's a good thing, but also get annoyed when people deify it and say (or at least imply) that other countries' systems are rubbish. The NHS is far from perfect - my Dad lost a leg due to medical negligence, so its failings have come pretty close to home for me.

With regard to dangerous pursuits, I can just about imagine (though it may well stop permanently in the realms of imagination) that I would do a parachute jump, in tandem, after training. At least I can see the appeal of it. What perplexes me is caving. The notion of squeezing oneself down dark claustrophobic narrow tunnels is the stuff of nightmares. And that's coming from someone with mining stock in the family - one rare instance where I say, if there's prejudice/laws against women working in the industry - LET IT STAY! Sometimes there is beauty to be seen at the end of the spelunking (I love that word, even though the practicalities of it horrify me) which I can sort of understand, but even though some of the underground crystals, stalactites and mites etc are spectacular, I will restrict myself to enjoying them on the telly!

SPELUNKING !!! ARE YOU MAD ???¿? *LOL* I feel the same way. The thought of being lost in a cave or being buried alive is terrifying to me. I don't even go into dark cloak rooms without a rope tied to me so I can find my way back out. *L*