Last night the Mrs. and I were hiding from the MJ sob fests and found ourselves watching “America’s Got Talent” on NBC.
While watching some talented and some horribly untalented folks do their thing, we found ourselves watching this performance:
Everyone in the audience was oohing and ahhing as Mario juggled the chainsaws, but it was obvious most of them had never touched a chainsaw. If they had, they’d realize that the chain doesn’t move unless you release the safety and pull the trigger on the handle. So what he was doing was juggling three chainsaws with their engines idiling with the safety engaged. Given the odd weight distribution of a chainsaw, that’s impressive on its own, but not as dangerous as it appears. And that was was the key point. People perceived that it was dangerous.
I find this often the case with things I allow the kids to do. We let our oldest climb the ladders at the park before age 2, for example. He thought he was in mortal peril doing so, but really, we were behind him with our hands on either side of him ready to catch him should he need it. I’ve let him, now older, cut a piece of wood with me in the backyard, not telling him I’ve sawed most of the way through already so he’s basically got to touch it and it’ll fall apart. But to him, the fun is in the danger of doing something grown up. From my end, I’ve done everything I can to make it as safe as possible.
My youngest thinks I’m going to throw him into the ceiling sometimes (and so does mommy), but what neither pay attention to is that I’m on my knees, restricting the height he’s actually travelling.
With my glass work, I use a sizeable flame, a torch that pops when I turn it off, and it looks visciously dangerous like at any moment I’ll get maimed for life. But that’s not the case. Sure, it could happen, but glass folks are generally good about safety. We keep burn products stashed around, we fireproof the area we work in, there are fire extinguishers within reach, and we leak check our lines, because *we* don’t want to die doing something we love; it’s better to live to do it another day.
My point of all this rambling? What looks horribly dangerous may not be. While it might ruin the illusion for you, don’t be afraid to step back and view the big picture and the setup to see how something’s done. Don’t just take for granted that someone’s going to lose an arm.