Risk

Dear friends of piano music,

self-knowledge grows over the years - one of the few advantages of getting older. I have known for a long time that I am not particularly willing to take risks, and recently I learned the correct terminology for it - I am risk-averse, the opposite of risk-savvy. This is expressed, for example, in the fact that I am always very astonished when, I am asked by the doctor whether I intend to go on a backpack tour through the Sahara during my vacation. Do I look like that? I deeply admire people who endure such inhuman hardships out of a thirst for adventure. There was a lady in the 19th century, whose name I have just forgotten, who wrote a kind of "anti-travel guide" - in it she describes the "most hideous" countries in the world and gives numerous reasons for which one would rather not go there should travel. It's not that bad for me, but adventure for me means more with the night train through Italy (I love that) than with the backpack through uninhabitable areas. Otherwise, if I'm in the mood for "thrills", I prefer reading Agatha Christie on the couch. Recently I noticed again - on the subject of self-awareness - that I must be naiv, too. . I actually assumed that the pandemic would be over when an effective vaccine was available in sufficient quantities. oh, how simple I am knitted. We actually have plenty of vaccine here in Germany, but it does not help because it is not vaccinated in sufficient quantities. Tricks have to be used, such as: Vaccination offers in the football stadium. The football fan who finds out that it is more convenient to get vaccinated because he doesn't have to wait two hours for his corona test to be allowed into the stadium. And he has to get the injection immediately, right in the football arena, because as soon as he has left the stadium, his motivation drops again and the virus wins the game. It seems to be a simple calculation: the coronavirus poses a risk, the vaccination actually a significantly smaller risk. But not being vaccinated at all, trusting that everyone else will do it, then, at least in theory, means no risk at all. And I thought that I was risk averse and therefore chose the lower risk of vaccination. What can I say, I enjoyed being vaccinated - no risk, no fun. Because I literally hate this virus like the plague and believed that the vaccination would put an end to the pandemic. Well, obviously I was wrong..

Kerstin