My girlfriend once broke her ankle in five places when she slipped on some ice right outside of her place of work. She needed two plates and three screws put in place for five years. Shtuff happens. Everywhere.
The chances of me being shot by some doofus in the lane next to me drops to zero if I never visit the range. The chances of tripping and falling into a campfire are zero if I never build a campfire. As I alluded to in my last post, we assume a certain amount of risk just by walking out the door each day. Yes, motorcycles are far more dangerous than cars. Just practicing in my apartment complex today I almost got creamed by two drivers who apparently thought I wasn't serious about my turn signals. What would have been a fender-bender in two cars would have been a trip to the hospital for me. I get it.
The sense of freedom one gets from a motorcycle was something of which I was quite dubious until I took the safety course. It's fun. So is kayaking, hiking, martial arts, and a host of other activities that carry some level of inherent risk. Thankfully we still live in a country where we can make those choices for ourselves.
Foremost on my mind is avoiding the attitude of "it can't happen to me." As it happens, the Air Force requires me to wear all of my protective gear all the time, even off duty. Perhaps after several years of riding I might be tempted to omit the jacket, but the choice is not mine. Still, I'm going to do my darndest to remember that out there, I'm the gnat, and the whole world is a flyswatter.
