I don't think you sound callous about “time being up”, you're spot on. Do I want my children to be a tragedy? No, but being an active participant by wading through the information, allows me to make the decision I think is best and live with it. In many ways it would be easier to just blindly trust “professionals” and innoculate, then if anything happens, we could claim ignorance, point our finger and blame them. Instead I choose to be an active participant, responsible for the health of my family.

Along with risk being unacceptable, I think the issue is also about control.

Thanks so much for your thought provoking comments.

you raise an interesting point – there is risk everywhere we turn. As a mom, I want to minimize obvious risks for my son – hence, he rides in a booster seat with a seatbelt. He brushes his teeth for 2 minutes each time, twice a day. I don't feed him HFCS and potato chips all day long.

But there are subtle risks we cannot avoid. H1N1 is hyped up, big time. Have people died from it? Absolutely. Does the seasonal flu kill people (young and old)? Absolutely. We can attempt to remove all risk from our lives and our children's lives, but ultimately, we will fail. And sometimes, it will be the non-risky things that cause accidents, or worse, even death. Did my son puncture his bottom lip with all four bottom teeth when he was 18 months old? Yup – he did. Was it neglect? No – he was pushing a push toy and tumbled head over feet, hitting his head on the sofa. I couldn't blame anyone or anything – and there was nothing I could have done to reduce the risk.

Our family also has survived the worst kind of trauma – the unexpected death of a child. A healthy 2.5 y/o girl goes to bed and doesn't wake up the next morning. Preventable? No – not even if she had been in the same bed with her parents. Blame? None – there was no cause of death ever discovered.

Sometimes bad things happen and sometimes, as much as we dislike it, someone's “time is up.” I don't mean to sound callous, but risk is everywhere. If we are alive, we face risk & peril. The fact that we try to eliminate more and more of it (e.g., the H1N1 vaccine) shows us how very safe we consider ourselves and how much we want to continue on in our perception of safety. Risk is unacceptable to us – especially when we see ourselves as powerful enough to reduce or remove it. Tragedy shows us how very powerless we really are. :

Last night I was at tieconmidwest's big dinner at the Ritz. A gentleman at our table had a very dry sense of humor and at one point mentioned he wasn't eating because of getting over the H1N1. I assumed he was being polite and not wanting to say “I don't like Indian food” (I don't either for the record). I asked him if he was serious about the flu. He said yes, he had it a little less than a month ago.

Color me old fashioned but I would have rather he not shaken my hand 5 times over the course of the day. I mean, if you can't eat because of a disease you had a month ago, why the heck are you touching others? It was interesting to watch the faces of the other guests at the table. We were all a little miffed.

I do agree that none of us seem to know enough about this flu and the media appears to be blowing it out of proportion (It's what they do best).

Thanks for the insightful post, Pat.

Be Connected-

Terry Bean
http://www.networkedinc.com – my blog/website
http://www.xeesm.com/terrybean- my digital footprint

I don't think you sound callous about “time being up”, you're spot on. Do I want my children to be a tragedy? No, but being an active participant by wading through the information, allows me to make the decision I think is best and live with it. In many ways it would be easier to just blindly trust “professionals” and innoculate, then if anything happens, we could claim ignorance, point our finger and blame them. Instead I choose to be an active participant, responsible for the health of my family.

Along with risk being unacceptable, I think the issue is also about control.

Thanks so much for your thought provoking comments.

you raise an interesting point – there is risk everywhere we turn. As a mom, I want to minimize obvious risks for my son – hence, he rides in a booster seat with a seatbelt. He brushes his teeth for 2 minutes each time, twice a day. I don't feed him HFCS and potato chips all day long.

But there are subtle risks we cannot avoid. H1N1 is hyped up, big time. Have people died from it? Absolutely. Does the seasonal flu kill people (young and old)? Absolutely. We can attempt to remove all risk from our lives and our children's lives, but ultimately, we will fail. And sometimes, it will be the non-risky things that cause accidents, or worse, even death. Did my son puncture his bottom lip with all four bottom teeth when he was 18 months old? Yup – he did. Was it neglect? No – he was pushing a push toy and tumbled head over feet, hitting his head on the sofa. I couldn't blame anyone or anything – and there was nothing I could have done to reduce the risk.

Our family also has survived the worst kind of trauma – the unexpected death of a child. A healthy 2.5 y/o girl goes to bed and doesn't wake up the next morning. Preventable? No – not even if she had been in the same bed with her parents. Blame? None – there was no cause of death ever discovered.

Sometimes bad things happen and sometimes, as much as we dislike it, someone's “time is up.” I don't mean to sound callous, but risk is everywhere. If we are alive, we face risk & peril. The fact that we try to eliminate more and more of it (e.g., the H1N1 vaccine) shows us how very safe we consider ourselves and how much we want to continue on in our perception of safety. Risk is unacceptable to us – especially when we see ourselves as powerful enough to reduce or remove it. Tragedy shows us how very powerless we really are. :

Last night I was at tieconmidwest's big dinner at the Ritz. A gentleman at our table had a very dry sense of humor and at one point mentioned he wasn't eating because of getting over the H1N1. I assumed he was being polite and not wanting to say “I don't like Indian food” (I don't either for the record). I asked him if he was serious about the flu. He said yes, he had it a little less than a month ago.

Color me old fashioned but I would have rather he not shaken my hand 5 times over the course of the day. I mean, if you can't eat because of a disease you had a month ago, why the heck are you touching others? It was interesting to watch the faces of the other guests at the table. We were all a little miffed.

I do agree that none of us seem to know enough about this flu and the media appears to be blowing it out of proportion (It's what they do best).

Thanks for the insightful post, Pat.

Be Connected-

Terry Bean
http://www.networkedinc.com – my blog/website
http://www.xeesm.com/terrybean- my digital footprint