#76Health and Safety
By Dominic | posted on 15 July 2009 | 4 comments
It seems strange and yet so simple to me that a lot of these issues can be resolved not with this overbearing nanny state but rather with the simple rule of “being responsible for your own actions”. If you trip and fall then it’s down to you, you should have been more careful. People need to stop automatically looking for someone else to blame and start taking more personal responsibility. There’s only so much you can learn for yourself with someone holding your hand the whole time, telling you not to take any form of risk just go about your life without causing any ripples. The funny thing is that sounds more like a video game to me than anything else, follow this set course doing things within these boundaries that we specify for you because that’s how it should be. Its like sitting in a small room where your perfectly happy but if someone was to tell you that the door is locked and your not allowed to leave you would suddenly begin to feel uncomfortable and then the urge to get out. Humans don’t like being confined.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have rules as that would be anarchy but simply that rules should never supersede common sense and reason. Rules should always be open to question or discussion. Now granted its not always the time or the place, for example rules in the army are there to keep order and save lives in situations where a clear chain of command is needed and to be followed without question. But that doesn’t mean that you should be afraid to ask or suggest a different way at a later date or in a time better suited, just so long as you can back it up with reasons why your suggestion is better.
A lot of people seem to be only too happy to give away their decision making process, hiding behind rules or regulations even if they don’t understand it themselves. It seems a waste to me. Regardless of your personal faith or belief system the only certainty we have is that we live now, we exist now; as such why sleepwalk from the cot to the grave? Your life is something that should have value in its experiences not merely its possession. Some seem to focus too heavily on merely getting through life as if it is some kind of video game and as long as they survive one more level they’ll be ok. In sticking with the video game analogy you could fail at the 1st level or you could survive everything thrown at you and make it past the last boss but it still ends. What is of value are the moments you played through not the completion itself. A large part of who I am is a result of not wanting to make it to 75, 80,100 and look back on my life as having "made it through". I want to be able to look at all i achieved whether big or small and know i gave it my all, not that i held something back and didn't aim for more for fear of risking what i already had. Personally i feel that regret and missed opportunity are worse than failing and having to start again. We make of our lives what we will. Sometimes I may not want to compromise on something if I feel strongly about it regardless of the consequences. But its my choice to make and I’d happily live with the outcome (good or bad) knowing I did what I thought was right and true to myself.
I’m not sure if there’s an overall point here or if I managed to accurately get across what’s in my head. But to sum up I guess I just think that you should always be true to yourself and think things through for yourself, that way whatever may be you can look at it and smile!
Labels: Psychology
About the Author : Dominic4 Comments:
Wise words. The media frenzy that erupts over a single, extremely rare, event is all too common unfortunately. No matter how tragic such an event is, one must always consider it relative to the bigger picture - which is that statistically parkour is far safer than playing rugby or going horseriding.
The nature of the press, however, is that it will always look to report on the rare and extreme examples in any situation - simply because those are the stories that sell papers. This is why you will never see a newspaper article entitled "Shock News! 99.9% of parkour practitioners enjoy another perfectly safe day of training"...
And it is the same across the board: disease/war/financial crises/crime: if one believed the papers one would think we are living in an unimaginably dangerous time - when the stark and undeniable truth is that for those living in the developed world, we have never been safer, healthier, longer-lived and less likely to suffer from violence in the entire history of human civilization. Yet CCTV is everywhere, fear is rife, and children are locked inside all day on XBoxes by parents afraid to let them play in the woods.
Such is the power of the press.
By 
Dan, at
7:34 pm, July 15, 2009
At least some of us have our eyes wide open!!
By 
, at
6:34 pm, July 17, 2009
Since completing my last contract in London, and losing easy access to all the good training sites (I live in the relative countryside of Kent), i've been making do with using a local country park and it's fairly uninspiring kids play area.
About a month ago I went there for a run and was completely gobsmacked by the health and safety nightmare that had been erected there - but in a good way.
Kent County Council seem to have had an epiphany, and realised that making slides 2 foot tall, fitting swings with seats that you have to put your legs through, and climbing frames with handrails and belay anchors does not help children develop a safe attitude to play, and life in general. They have bolted together a load of logs in a fairly random fashion - no right angles here, strung some cargo net across some of it, and on one part, connected a slide. There are no steps, no handrails, no safety signs and at it's highest point, it's about 10ft tall.
It's given me a very functional Parkour training area, and everyday I see kids as young as 4 playing on it. They know it hurts to fall off, so they are careful, but they still climb to the top and walk across the highest beam. As Dom said, these children are learning that they are responsible for the danger they place themselves in, and so far I haven't seen any children doing anything (particularly) stupid, that prize probably goes to me.
Thank you to whoever at KCC & Shorne Country Park is responsible for this tribute to common sense.
By Mick Mason, at
8:17 pm, July 20, 2009
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
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