Sign Post for Life

I saw this sign near Burlington, Vermont. I thought the sign was hilarious even before I saw the pond. The pond was about five square meters and twelve inches deep. I wondered what possessed someone to caution people about a pond. It wasn’t a caution about thin ice, or poisonous frogs. It was a caution about a pond! It might as well have said, “Caution – Trail.”

It got me thinking about risk. We hear a lot about how busy everyone is. We hear a lot about how managing time is the road to happiness. I wonder if the reason people can’t see to manage time is because we’re just plain afraid to say no to things. Just like we’re afraid to discard belongings. Perhaps a sign like the one depicted can serve to remind us that life without risk would be pretty dull, and what we should be afraid of is wasting our time on the wrong things.