Trego's Mountain Ear

There are Darwin Awards out there – and you have to win every time you’re in a spot to get a Darwin. (The Darwin awards are in recognition of removing oneself from the gene pool by one’s own foolish actions) Darwin, like Malthus, only needs to be right once. Winning means not getting a Darwin award.

It’s why stupidity, according to Heinlein, is a capital offense. Martin Luther King said “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Jennifer Lee Carrol described it: “Stupidity makes you dangerous to yourself and everyone around you.”

Perhaps John Farnam’s rule of stupid is what we most need: “Don’t go to stupid places; don’t associate with stupid people; don’t do stupid things.” In Minneapolis, we saw Farnam’s rule violated – and then, seeing the results were not what they wanted, the folks against deporting illegals doubled down, even more came out of the woodwork, with a story that denied Good’s contribution to her death. Then ICE doubled down and sent in another thousand agents.

Some of our mojados survived the trip through the Darien Gap, the rest of central America, Mexico and across the Rio Grande – others died on the way. I think of Gonzalo’s mother – a pregnant teen, sixty years ago, going north from Yucatan so her baby would be born in the US and Gonzalo would have opportunities that she didn’t. She took the risks knowingly, won her gamble, and was promptly deported back to Mexico, with newborn US citizen Gonzalo. That was a different, calculated decision.

In the woods, don’t hang out under widowmakers. I have one here on the place, that my father pointed out to avoid over sixty years ago. I’m looking forward to sharing it with my grandsons – let’s see how many generations can share that hazard. There’s a reason to wear a brainbucket when you’re using a chainsaw.

Hanging out with stupid people can be hazardous – the type of friend that says or does exactly the wrong thing and gets the entire bar PO’d at two or three people. Come to think of it, part of that may include going to stupid places and doing stupid things. Right now, the news kind of focuses me on Minnesota and ICE – but there are a lot of other opportunities to go to stupid places and do stupid things with stupid people. The point is to avoid them – and at 76, I’ve probably been lucky more than skillful. Not having a Darwin Award for the wall is a good thing.