There's a lot of angry talk about who is responsible for not preventing the disaster in New Orleans, and why more wasn't done sooner. I really don't want to jump into that battle. But I ran across an article today that shows that the threat was well known, even though I had never heard of it before last week. This article was from almost a year ago, and yet it tells the story of last week's disaster with uncanny reality.
I suspect that the local/state government in this area had grown so used to tricking the environment that they had a false sense of security. One lesson I have taken away from this disaster is that I don't want to do what everyone else does just because they feel safe. I live in the desert, which has its own environmental concerns, but poses no weather-related threat like living below sea-level. But I've examined many areas of my life in these last few days, looking for places where I might be blindly following the crowd down a path that leads to the top of a cliff. I'm asking myself: what risks truly exist, even if they have been talked down, in the areas of my health, fiscal management, work, etc. What if the assumptions I've made are wrong, what if something else quite different happens? How would it impact me? How can I minimize my exposure to these risks? How can I be smarter than I am right now in my own life?
I encourage you to think about your own life. While you are working through your own thoughts and feelings around this disaster and taking whatever action you can to support those suddenly in need, think about what false sense of security might be hiding a true risk in your own life, and plan a course of action to protect yourself. The wisest thing we can do is learn from the mistakes of others.
