Protecting your downside.....

There are a lot of cliches that people use for the concept of "covering their downside." It tends to be a financial/stock market term, which means that you spread your investments over a broad spectrum, so that if one "goes down" there are others that will hopefully come to fruition and you won't be totally out of pocket.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket," is another way of saying it. Don't make your focus in life too narrow. Keep your options open, so that if one door closes, there are a few others that are still open.

Politicians will say to those pushing the envelope, "cover your ass." That is, make sure that you have a back up story, an alibi, a way of getting out of the "fix" you may be getting yourself in. I am sure there are many more phrases that say the same thing. They are colourful and convey the message, in an image or a few well chosen words.

No phrase, though, is as striking, as Archy's (the cockroach from my last post) take on the whole situation -

if you will drink

hair restorer follow

every dram with some

good standard

depilatory

as a chaser

Cockroach Canapes maybe :)

OK, so maybe you have to be a cockroach to really appreciate the metaphor.  I am back to Archy and I may come back to him again. We can learn from cockroaches, they have been on this earth longer than man - there is something to be said for collective wisdom!!

Then again there is something to be said for those who put all their eggs in one basket for one glorious moment. This is from another of Archy's  "posts" -

The Lesson of the Moth 

i was talking to a moth

the other evening

he was trying to break into

an electric light bulb

and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows

pull this stunt i asked him

because it is the conventional

thing for moths or why

if that had been an uncovered

candle instead of an electric

light bulb you would

now be a small unsightly cinder

have you no sense

plenty of it he answered

but at times we get tired

of using it

we get bored with the routine

and crave beauty

and excitement

fire is beautiful

and we know that if we get

too close it will kill us

but what does that matter

it is better to be happy

for a moment

and be burned up with beauty

than to live a long time

and be bored all the while

so we wad all our life up

into one little roll

and then we shoot the roll

that is what life is for

it is better to be a part of beauty

for one instant and then cease to

exist than to exist forever

and never be a part of beauty

our attitude toward life

is come easy go easy

we are like human beings

used to be before they became

too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him

out of his philosophy

he went and immolated himself

on a patent cigar lighter

i do not agree with him

myself i would rather have

half the happiness and twice

the longevity

but at the same time i wish

there was something i wanted

as badly as he wanted to fry himself

archy

As pragmatic as most of us are, most of the time, I think that there lives within each of us that small dark death wish - that desire to have something so all consuming that we would give up everything for it!!!

What are your thoughts on this?

Have an amazing day