Objectivity...

We took my brother Pete out to Brennan's Fish House over in Grand River today. He really digs their crab legs.Somehow we started talking about doing stupid stuff. The story of me and En crewing on our buddy Eric boat in a race in Lake Erie came up. Typically we had little club races out of Edgewater Yacht Club and this one as like the others.Except for the thunderstorm that blew in.All of us on the boat knew how to swim, but this time the life jackets were part of the gear as well. (Normally the J-80 we were on only went so fast, which is why we didn't typically win.) This was a fun excursion.Objectively you would look at the situation and think "why the hell are you our on the lake in a storm?"It didn't look that bad when we started and by the time we were out there we were kinda in it already. You can't just pull over on a boat, so we just soldiered on with the race.With (if memory serves me right) around 8-10-foot waves around us we somehow lost a line to one of the sails (a sheet in the correct parlance) and it was flailing about on the bow of the boat. You can't just have that; it's not safe. So I ran up front to grab it without a second thought.Again... objectively you have to think: Why the HELL are you running around a boat? Aren't you afraid of falling in?I didn't and all is well. Even if I did fall in I'd most likely be fine with my life jacket on.Well, that's the thing. Sometimes it's better to not think everything through all the way. If you did you would never get out of bed.That one time out on the lake is one of my best memories from that summer. You remember adrenalin, not boredom.Do you think that most baseball players when they dive for a ball think of the landing? There'll be time enough to think of that after you catch the ball.Objectively cars are dangerous devices. As are motorcycles. And eating greasy food. And riding a bicycle. And camping. And... If you think of everything that can go wrong you'd never do anything.Just be like a boyscout and "be prepared." You don't prep for the things that go right. You do it for the things that fail.Just have on that life jacket if you think you'll need it.