Avoiding sharks and elephants

A few days ago, a report of another bloke getting killed by a shark in South Africa hit the international press. When I checked it up, I became more impacted by the story than I had been; it happened in Fish Hoek, where I'd spent the weekend a few months ago. And while I never actually went in for a swim, I had been intending to, and got as far as going for a paddle on the very beach where the shark had his dinner. So it's not quite 'It could have been me', but not too far off.

But more chilling was a report that didn't get the same level of attention, of an American tourist and her one-year-old being trampled to death by an elephant, doing exactly what we had been doing as a family a few weeks before, having a guided walk through the forest, while staying at the same lodge. Yikes! Come to think of it, on another walk, the guide had shown us good places to hide if elephants came along. Kind of puts me off going there again; we had a lovely time, though, and the kids kept on checking that we would return at some point.

Life is fragile. But it still needs to be lived, rather than cowering in a corner, worried about what might happen. To be honest, the traffic is probably more dangerous than anything else, but that doesn't seem so menacing, and we get in our cars every day. And every day we can say 'There, but for the grace of God, go I'.