Life Is Uncertain

It was around this time 10 years ago. After a night out with a friend, I made my way back to the suburbs via the el. I had parked my car at a local suburb el station and took the train in for my night out. I figured it would be easier than trying to find parking. The trip home was a two-step process. The first step was to take the red line from the city to the end of the line and then transfer to the purple line. What I didn't anticipate was that I would be making my way home during the wee hours of the morning.

During the first leg of the trip, myself and two other females encountered a rather large guy who was acting a bit aggressive towards us. This was the first time during this ride home I realized that maybe I should have paid more attention to the time. Thankfully, the guy wasn't so aggressive as to actually try to touch us. However, I did become fast friends with the two other girls waiting for the same train. In our minds there was safety in numbers. I sat with the others until they got off the train. Then I sat alone making sure I was extremely aware of my surroundings. Minutes after getting off the red line train at the end of the line I realized another purple line train wasn't coming for about another 3 hours. I panicked for a moment. The area I was in wasn't the safest neighborhood and I had to figure out what I was going to do. Thankfully, when I Ieft the station there were two cabs parked across the street. This was perfect since another passenger of the same train I was on was in a similar boat as I. I was also thankful because those were the days when cabs didn't take credits card. It just happen that my whole night out had been comped so I had just enough case to cover the fair back to my car. I was lucky to have gotten out of that situation without anything happening to me.

This week, for the Thursday Blog project Sara asked us to give our thoughts on whether or not we felt the world was more unsafe now, than it was 50 years ago. Or, are we just more aware of it now, than we were back then?

I didn't use the best judgement in the above story. I should have thought through the possibilities for that particular evening a little bit more than I did. However, the situation itself isn't the most unsafe situation I've ever been in. Actually, the most unsafe situation I've ever been in started out as a safe situation, and turned into an unsafe situation. It's important to note this because as much as I think many of us would like to think life is predictable, it is really isn't THAT predictable. On a daily basis we put ourselves in situations that we think nothing of, because we think they are safe, but do in fact have the potential to become unsafe. The fact of the matter is that life itself is uncertain, and thus as a whole, unsafe.

In preparation I did some very lite research. What I that in the 20's and 30's crime wasn't reported with the same regularity that it is today and as a result not many statistics exist for that period of time. (It did state, however, that they did report dead bodies which I found interesting.) Furthermore, the information I read said that crime today is actually lower than it was in the 1970s. Though crime may be lower than it was in the 1970s, I believe as a society we may not feel this way because we hear about crime in our neighborhoods, and around the world, on a consistent basis. Technology has made this information so readily accessibility so new about crime is "in our face" all the time.

In my mind, I reconcile the uncertainty of life by reminding myself that I am making decisions that make me feel safe, yet still allow me to live my life. Additionally, it is that same uncertainty that pushes me to live life outside the box and take risks - such as skydiving - that I might not have otherwise taken.

Now that I've shared with you my thoughts on whether or not our world is safer now than it was 50 years ago, please take a moment to read what my fellow bloggers have to say:

• Momarock (Sara)

• Merryland Girl (Melissa)

• Mom of Many (Susanna)

Until later . . .