After a dismal night’s sleep, I was up way too early this morning. Having completed all the kitty chores, I still had tons of time on my hands, so I poured a cup and took it with me down to Lake Parker to watch the morning take shape.
I arrived way before twilight so I drove up and down the side of the lake to decide what spot to pick for my early morning pics. When I started this whole Lake Parker scene, there were four spots that I could comfortably shoot the morning sun rise, but as was confirmed with my drive up and down the side of the lake, three of those were no longer available to me.
They decided to add lights in those areas that take away my ability to get dark shots and so I found myself back at the boat launch and the little pier on the north west side. If they ever add lights there, I am fucked.
Anyway, I did get some nice shots. Nothing spectacular but the peace and beauty of the start to the morning is evident for all to see.
They are at the end of this blog. Hope you enjoy!
It was while still there that the thought for today’s blog hit me. Someone at the city obviously decided that extra lighting was needed at certain points along the road and I wondered if they realized the consequence of their decisions.
I am sure that their justifications for such lighting would far outweigh the needs of an old guy with a camera looking for a dark place before sunrise. So, I am not even remotely suggesting that they made the wrong decision.
It is really just that each decision that is made, brings a consequence with it. In this case, my needs are merely collateral damage.
It is the same when decisions are made to take tracts of land and give permission to develop them. Invariably, wild creatures suffer the collateral damage there in losing their environment.
I remember a year ago being warned by someone driving by my property not to leave my cats out at night. Apparently there are packs of coyotes that have been spotted nearby and they have taken neighborhood cats at night.
I never want to see a cat die like that of course and two of my rescues have suffered horrible damage from such attacks. But the truth of the matter is that these wild creatures have clearly lost their environment to the developments that are now sprinkled across Lakeland.
There are agencies within the government that do raise these consequences so many of the decisions made for development are bounded by such considerations.
But the thought that I was having was more on a personal level of decision making.
You see, each decision we make in life has consequence and it is important that we are aware of such consequences when we make one.
Many of us plough willy nilly through life making decisions without much aforethought of any consequence. In fact, the younger you are, the more likely you are to commit such egregious behavior.
It isn’t that most people are being mean or egocentric. It’s just that they don’t think.
Not thinking is the greatest cause of collateral damage in most of our lives and this is the problem.
I remember when I was growing up, I learned chess. The basics of the game was a set of different rules for each piece and to some people that created a degree of complexity to the game.
But more than the set of rules, what the game taught each of us (hoping to win an occasional game) is that you have to think several moves ahead and imagine what your opponent is likely to do at each move of your own.
Thus you were being trained to examine the consequence of each move before you made it.
There is a real advantage to this in life. Thinking several moves ahead before you say or do something is an excellent way to tackle most things in life. But not everyone can do that and even if you can, sometimes you get it wrong.
But at the very least, we should understand an immediate reaction or consequence of something that we do or say. We have that responsibility to those around us as our words and actions can have real influence and cause real damage to others.
Chess is one of those almost forgotten games these days, for most of us. But we could do well to understand its principles and in particular the skill of consequence to decision, even if we never play the game itself.
… just a thought.
