If you knew…ahead of time that your plane was going to crash, what is the one thing that you’d do?  Would you get your affairs in order?  Would you party like its 1929?  Would you ignore the foreknowledge and just step onto the plane?  If others were warning you ahead of time would you think of them as nut cases even though you knew that something bad was going to happen?  Or, would you just quietly pack a parachute?  I know the answer, it is that you wouldn’t get on the plane in the first place but what if you had no choice?

The above is pretty esoteric I know but I think a pretty good analogy to our lives.  Most people have a fairly good idea that something is wrong, very wrong.  However, few people really know what it is.  There are those that will say, “It’s all Bush’s fault,” there are others who will say, “Look what Obama has done to the nation.”  Some have just buried their heads in the sand and say “this is just the way it is, the government will never let anything bad happen.”  Others just smile and hum the tune “kumbayah” because it makes them feel better.  My point is this, we as a human race are ALL on this airplane (with the exception of a very few who have purchased their own private islands) whether we like it or not.  The plane is mathematically going to crash.  What was once a brand new shiny aircraft now has holes in it, the wings are scotch taped together while the aileron and flaps are furiously going side to side and up and down.  Don’t worry the captain says, “It’s all under control.  We’ve been through all this before and the bumpiness is just a little bit of turbulent weather.” Well guess what?  No we haven’t and no it’s not.

So really, what would you do in this circumstance?  Well, the answer is the obvious one, you would pack a parachute.  Simple answer right?  Yes, obvious and even a 6 year old who has watched enough cartoons already knew the answer.  But what if a parachute costs $1,300 and you could have bought one 10 years ago for $300?  Would you decide not to buy one because “it’s just too expensive?”  Or better yet, what if you had waited to buy a parachute until 2 years ago and paid $1,900 for it?  Would you think of yourself as foolish because you overpaid, cut your losses and sold it to someone else?  Or even better, what if you had read ahead of time that the demand for parachutes was exploding and the manufacturers couldn’t keep up with this and that there just weren’t enough parachutes to go around?  Would you wait to buy yours?  What if you read somewhere that the plane would hold together until some specified location or point in time?  Would you believe it?  Even if you saw the scotch tape on the wings starting to separate?  Even if you looked back and saw the aileron missing?  Would you wait to buy your parachute because it might get a little cheaper?  Does it really matter how much a parachute costs as long as it opens when you need it?

I know that anyone who reads the goofy analogy above “gets it”… but some just can’t bring themselves to believe it.   I wrote this because it IS just this simple.  The plane IS mathematically going to crash.  Anyone on the plane when it crashes will die an instantaneous death.  Your only escape is to have a parachute.  A paper receipt that says you “own one” won’t do however because as the plane is going down and you jump from the door, nothing other than a real parachute will open and slow your descent to safety.  Supposedly “owning one” doesn’t work under real world situations.