I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks now and, I really
can’t explain why. Maybe I was just
waiting for a time when the thought itself felt more fully formed. I don’t like writing off the cuff, it feels
terribly unpolished, disjointed and scatterbrained.
Anyway, the point of today’s post is simple. Do you use crosswalks or not?
My commute home from work takes me through the business
district of Corpus Christi, Texas, a not terribly big city on the coast. I take two streets, two left turns and a
right, to get from my office to the highway and something I have noticed for a
long while is that people don’t like to use crosswalks.
I could easily assume that those of you reading this know
what a crosswalk is, but erring on the side of caution, a crosswalk is a
section of roadway, usually found at an intersection, where there is a white
painted single column grid indicating to pedestrians that it is safe to cross
the street at this location. It’s
usually denoted with “Walk/Don’t Walk” lights.
Now between my office door and the highway there are five
crosswalks. Yet for reasons totally
their own, I see many people dart willy-nilly across the street like they are
in a live action game of “Frogger”. On
the surface this can confound, because both pedestrians AND drivers know that
by law, the cross walk is the safe spot to cross at. But here we are, with people going to and
from work launching them into a full sprint across the street. The question now is “why?”
This behavior is indicative of the nature of humanity
itself. We instinctively want to follow
the path of least resistance. We want to
acquire immediate satisfaction without the actual effort of working for
it. That’s why drug abuse, alcohol
abuse, and gambling abuse is so prevalent in our culture. People see them as a means of immediate
gratification for minimal effort.
In moderation these things are not bad. When used properly within the scope of legal
means, drugs are actually a good thing.
They can relieve pain during a difficult recovery process, but they
become abused when the effect of the drug is used to supplant the recovery
process. Let’s say you undergo major
surgery for instance. The doctor prescribes
a pain management medication to help you cope with pain while you undergo
recovery therapy. Recovery therapy,
anyone will tell you, is not easy. It
can be a hugely difficult process that takes way longer than a five minute
music montage, as popular cinema would have you believe. So when recovery doesn’t present immediate results,
there is a temptation to turn to that pain medication for relief.
In social situations, alcohol consumption can be good. It’s okay to share a drink with friends after
work occasionally. But again, occasionally
does not mean “every day”. It doesn’t
even mean “every Friday or every weekend”.
It means once in a while. Could
be once a month, a time for everyone to unwind and decompress. Alcohol hits parts of the brain that makes
you feel good, and people want to go back to that good feeling. The problem is that the feeling can feel so
good, that it starts to make the stress of work or at home look harder than it
actually is. So the inclination is to
cut across that street back into alcohol to get back to the good feeling. This starts to upset the balance
significantly where seeking that good feeling of alcohol is actually making the
stressors worse because you aren’t taking the time to actually deal with them.
Gambling. Again, in a
strictly social construct, it’s fine.
You can go to a casino to have some fun with friends, maybe gain a
little bit of money in the long run. I’ve
heard it said though, that the worst thing you can do in gambling is win. That’s because that triggers a whole new set
of senses in your brain. That feeling
when you get your paycheck at the end of your work period, that gratification
you feel for being rewarded for your hard work?
Yeah, that, only without the stress of actually working for it. All of the sudden you have a means to feel
that rush of winning with minimal effort.
The problem now is that you don’t always win. In fact, more often than not, you don’t
win. But you want to gain back that
feeling of winning so you keep playing, spending more and more time and money
into an institution that has promised you and owes you nothing.
A gambling win, time available to spend with friends,
medical science, these are blessings from God.
God has graced us with these gifts to help us in a difficult world. But when we rely on this above the work God
has called us to, we turn these blessings into self-appointed curses. God did not curse these institutions; we let
the Devil tell us that it was easier to abuse them than to do the hard work.
But how do drugs, alcohol, and gambling relate to
crosswalks? It’s the principle. The risk of avoiding the work to gain the
reward is unbalanced. Darting across the
street offers the same sense of satisfaction as getting high or drunk or riding
that winning bet. Is risking getting hit
by a car worth avoiding the thirty or fifty feet you’d need to walk to across
the street safely? Most of the people I
see do it don’t seem to even think about it, it’s action without thought. When they first tried it, it worked without
incident. The second and third time,
again without incident. They could dart
across that street fifty times and not get hit by a car. You might abuse drugs or gamble or get drunk
fifty times without incident. But what
happens when you lose more than you were willing to risk? When getting drunk or high turns into
something more important than your responsibilities? When you can’t pay your bills because you
were banking on that next big score? When
you dart across that street without even thinking, or noticing the car who didn’t
see you?
Work vs Risk. Which
will leave you more satisfied when you get your reward?
As always, thanks for reading.
