Proximity to a Precipice

May we quote a sensible sentence: “No one ever falls over a precipice who never goes near one.” Crowding things to the outer edge is always an invitation to disaster. And it is frequently true that people partly invite their own difficulties and disasters. They often flit and flirt on the edge. They often start things without thinking through beforehand how or where they can stop them. This has happened to youngsters who have started rocks rolling, or who have released the brakes on idle automobiles and who haven’t been able to stop what they started. In a sense they may have been innocent, but actually in most instances they knew they were doing something they shouldn’t be doing, even if they weren’t aware of the full consequences. When we start anything rolling, we may be powerless to stop it halfway down the hill. Starting a fire and then dashing down the street and putting it out may also be exciting, but preventing the fire in the first place is much safer for fires are sometimes stubborn things to stop. We sometimes hear those who humorously say: “I don’t know my own strength.” But the person who doesn’t know his own strength may also not know his own weakness, and where unknown factors are concerned, it is wise to play the safe side. For the protection of its personnel, the army often has declared undesirable places to be “off limits.” And we should learn in our own lives what is “off limits” for our personal peace and protection, and keep a safe distance. Tightrope walking and balancing in precarious places may be all right in the circus, but in life it is a pretty poor policy to place ourselves in a precarious position where one misstep may mean much regret. There should be a margin of safety in everything we do, and if there is any question in our minds what the margin should be, we should make it much wider than we think it needs to be. It is a smart man who knows how to keep clear of any extreme edge from which he might suddenly slip. “No one ever falls over a precipice who never goes near one.”