This week we watched with horror as a Texas baseball fan and firefighter fell to his death attempting to catch a ball hurtling into the stands.
This man overreached in this case, and went to his death in order to try and catch a baseball!
He did an ordinary thing and it cost him his life--right in front of his son.
It is tragic--unbelievable.
Ironically, the same day, the Wall Street Journal (8 July 2011) has an article called "The Taming of The Fans," about what they call "rowdy fan bases" and efforts to control the craziness.
In response, a "fan code of conduct" is being adopted by some.
"Among the no-no's:"
- Fighting
- Illegal drugs
- Laser pens
- Drinking underage
- And so on.
About a month ago, there was the riots in Vancouver after the Stanley cup was lost and from the chaos came the now famous photo of the kissing couple, the girl having been injured and on the ground in the mayhem.
We live in an unpredictable world--where things can get out of control.
When rationality, morality, and a sense of moderation get away from us, thenterrible things happen--death, destruction, chaos.
And of course, this is not limited to fans of sporting events and rock-and-roll concerts.
This week, we watched with mouths agape as people like Casey Anthony and Dominique Strauss-Kahn basically walk away from some very serious and terrible charges. While no one can say what really happened, we were all really shocked at the outcomes.
For months now, we have been watching with indignation as various Middle-East dictators shoot, kill, besiege, and round up their own people in order to maintain power in the Arab Spring.
Lara Logan, the CBS reporter, who was sexually attacked and brutally beaten by a mob in Egypt's Tahir Square during the riots in February, is another recent horror tale that speaks volumes about people going to non-sensical extremes and committing atrocities.
The images and sound bites are there basically everyday of people, organizations, and societies going to the extremes and doing unthinkables--really these are burned into consciousness (for others it's in their subconscious).
People are willing to go to all sorts of extremes to get what they want, do what they believe, or just to go sheer crazy.
Sometimes, those efforts are rewarded and others get their due--in the end, I believe justice prevails in this life or the after.
Our world sits on a fine line between sanity and insanity--life and death.
People are tempted "to go for it" to get what they want all the time.
But the challenge is to weigh the cost and benefits and chose our actions carefully.
There is a domino effect to our choices--and we own the consequences.
Will we pull ourselves back from the edge--when the ball is coming our way in life?
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