Are risks to be avoided or to run with?
The word 'risk' - what does it do for you?
I love this photo of Richard, taken in 2013 whilst visiting Zayatsky Island in Russia.
This was an impromptu moment where he walked unaided along a long down-slope wooden slated footpath.
It was simply amazing to observe his risk-taking - his moment of sheer pleasure of freedom and independence of action.
Looking back over my life, taking risks was expected because of necessity. I also learned to associate risk with being a source of excitement - venturing into the unknown, pushing boundaries, challenging beliefs and assumptions, being different, taking me to new lands, new experiences, new people . . .
In my role as carer to Richard, my ease with risk-taking has been challenged by the need to risk-assess for his safety. Being blind now coupled with moderate hearing loss, Richard has lost his ability to take the risks he used to - for example walking unaided along busy stress and crossing roads, making fires, gardening easily on his own, chopping certain food stuffs, talking to someone whilst confidently knowing they were there in front of him. Everyday jobs are no longer taken for granted - each one requires assessing as to whether he can or I need to.
The beginnings of my learning to be his guide was like training a filly - I was full of enthusiasm and energy, yet lacked the ability to be firm and deliberate, as well as adequately using my peripheral sight awareness, and working with mirror-image. I had to learn to change my whole attitude, learn new skills and slow down to match his need for safe guidance. The pain experienced from banging into sharp door edges, walls and corners was a great teacher! This was a hard lesson for someone who was used to going that extra mile as I was now facing a different scenario - guiding safely Richard was all about good risk-assessment in order to make appropriate decisions of how to proceed.
Yet, am I assessing from my point of reference or his? Tough one as I also knew he enjoyed taking risks. Yet we were both facing the same dilemma - safety vs risk/excitement? But then, the question of danger arises. When is it o.k to say no, let's go the safe route and take the easier road to walk on? Is that just avoiding, a cop out?
Traveling for us both has always a leveler and opportunity to test out this paradox. Knowing his sight would eventually go, we have taken risks when it was safe to do so with the little sight he had, to create a visual bank of memories - including riding elephants to spot tigers in Nepal's and India's jungles and national parks, walking along 2ft wide planks that connected a myriad of small boats across the Bay of Bengal to get to the Sunderbans, getting to Solovetsky Island to visit Russia's first gulag, visiting Nelson Mandela's prison cell at Robben Island, riding camels across a Rajasthan desert, witnessing the glorious monuments at Palmyra in Syria, coming face to face with Tut-ankh-amun's head dress in Cairo - that's a story for another day.
So my dilemma with safety and risk in an ongoing one and a subject I will return to blog about further.
In the meantime, take a look at the following clip to see how Richard got on with his risk-taking walk. Enjoy!
I love this photo of Richard, taken in 2013 whilst visiting Zayatsky Island in Russia.
This was an impromptu moment where he walked unaided along a long down-slope wooden slated footpath.
It was simply amazing to observe his risk-taking - his moment of sheer pleasure of freedom and independence of action.
Looking back over my life, taking risks was expected because of necessity. I also learned to associate risk with being a source of excitement - venturing into the unknown, pushing boundaries, challenging beliefs and assumptions, being different, taking me to new lands, new experiences, new people . . .
In my role as carer to Richard, my ease with risk-taking has been challenged by the need to risk-assess for his safety. Being blind now coupled with moderate hearing loss, Richard has lost his ability to take the risks he used to - for example walking unaided along busy stress and crossing roads, making fires, gardening easily on his own, chopping certain food stuffs, talking to someone whilst confidently knowing they were there in front of him. Everyday jobs are no longer taken for granted - each one requires assessing as to whether he can or I need to.
The beginnings of my learning to be his guide was like training a filly - I was full of enthusiasm and energy, yet lacked the ability to be firm and deliberate, as well as adequately using my peripheral sight awareness, and working with mirror-image. I had to learn to change my whole attitude, learn new skills and slow down to match his need for safe guidance. The pain experienced from banging into sharp door edges, walls and corners was a great teacher! This was a hard lesson for someone who was used to going that extra mile as I was now facing a different scenario - guiding safely Richard was all about good risk-assessment in order to make appropriate decisions of how to proceed.
Yet, am I assessing from my point of reference or his? Tough one as I also knew he enjoyed taking risks. Yet we were both facing the same dilemma - safety vs risk/excitement? But then, the question of danger arises. When is it o.k to say no, let's go the safe route and take the easier road to walk on? Is that just avoiding, a cop out?
Traveling for us both has always a leveler and opportunity to test out this paradox. Knowing his sight would eventually go, we have taken risks when it was safe to do so with the little sight he had, to create a visual bank of memories - including riding elephants to spot tigers in Nepal's and India's jungles and national parks, walking along 2ft wide planks that connected a myriad of small boats across the Bay of Bengal to get to the Sunderbans, getting to Solovetsky Island to visit Russia's first gulag, visiting Nelson Mandela's prison cell at Robben Island, riding camels across a Rajasthan desert, witnessing the glorious monuments at Palmyra in Syria, coming face to face with Tut-ankh-amun's head dress in Cairo - that's a story for another day.
So my dilemma with safety and risk in an ongoing one and a subject I will return to blog about further.
In the meantime, take a look at the following clip to see how Richard got on with his risk-taking walk. Enjoy!