When my wife and I say that we hope to go to Egypt soon, some friends say, Why would you take that risk? My wife says, How many Americans have been killed there? Or she says, I believe in Appointment in Samarra: when your number comes up, your number comes up.
When I was 8 or 9 my parents were getting seatbelts put in their car. Ahead of the federal regulations, they got them put in. They were fearful about American highways and also American nuclear-test radiation. My mother used to chew out mothers who drove her kids home in the front seat. Once my mother reported, “And she told me, ‘I believe when your number comes up, your number comes up.’ What a fool.”
Typically, I asked my wife how to square her view with my mom’s. She said, Well I’m not an idiot, I don’t take ridiculous risks. But how many accidents did you get in after they put in the seatbelts? Your mother may be safe in her car but some people might say, I’d rewire that old house. People rationalize the risks they want to take and magnify the ones they don’t want to take. Like my friend X who says, Why would anyone take hormone replacement therapy, it could give you cancer– as she’s smoking cigarette after cigarette. I love travel. So I accept the risks of travel.
