John, last year I got stuck in mud up a dirt track off a dirt road miles
away from cell service. Why did I go up that hillside? Because a voice
inside my head told me that I needed to be less-cautious, that Mrs
Squirrel would have cheerfully urged us up that hill just to see. When
I've gone along with her, we've found ourselves in better campsites than
I would have found by myself.

I went where I should not have gone, out of doubt of my courage.

I questioned my caution, and pushed myself into a messy situation. The
trick, as always, is to find the middle way, between silly optimism and
overly-safe pessimism.

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
Bend, Ore.
1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer ca. 1972 from a defunct company in
San Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westrailia.
.

On 09/20/2011 04:05 PM, John Rodgers wrote:
> As a bush pilot in Alaska - I can attest that one of the most difficult
> decisions a pilot can make is simply NOT to make the trip - OR possibly,
> to do a 180 degree turn and go back. Prestige, the boss, some young
> up-and-coming hotshot pilot, something - always pushing to go. Even the
> customers. Somehow, over the years of flying the bush, I managed to make
> most of the right choices. I've bent a few airplanes, but I'm still here
> - but many of my fellow flyers are not, their bodies crumpled in the
> wreckage somewhere on a mountain, on the tundra, in a lake. Many failed
> to make the safe decision, pushed by whatever drives one to take those
> chances, while some were victims of other things. But the point is -
> weigh carefully just how really important a trip is, against the
> possible consequences that may follow. Some trips just shouldn't be made.
>
> John
>
> John Rodgers
> Clayartist and Moldmaker
> 88'GL VW Bus Driver
> Chelsea, AL
> Http://www.moldhaus.com
>
>
> On 9/20/2011 2:16 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>> Last line ........there are professional mountaineers that have turned
>> back
>> 400 meters from a 8,000 meter summit, and they were smart, and proud, to
>> have made that more conservative safer decision.