Risk — SEPTEMBER 17 WRITING PROMPT

Calculated Risks

What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? What gave you the courage to take that risk?

Objectively Speaking, Maybe Taking This Picture? (Photo by H. Jahangiri)

I have been accused of being “risk averse.” I don’t feel particularly risk averse, though. And some friends think me brave — a risk taker — for things I don’t consider to be courageous at all.

I don’t go skydiving, but not because I’m afraid I’ll die doing it. Statistically, it’s very safe. I simply don’t enjoy the sensation of free-fall. I don’t like it from the low height of a high dive, so why would I want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? My cousin, who considers skydiving his avocation, is quick to say, “What makes you think it’s a perfectly good airplane?”

I love parasailing. I have floated upside down over the Atlantic Ocean. Over a shark being beaten to death by dolphins, once. I’ve been dunked into the water, headfirst — and believe me, I was cheering on those dolphins as I started to descend, worried the boat captain couldn’t see what he was bringing me down onto!

I have adventurous taste in food. I’ll try anything, once, provided I’m reasonably sure it can’t kill me. That means I won’t eat anything likely to be contaminated with prions (so brain matter and eyeballs are out, but not for the…