Code red: Risk and Opportunities

Jacqueline Blaak

· 15 Feb 2021

Code red: Risk and Opportunities

“Mom! I don't have to go to school again!" She was just a little used to going to school again, not having an online lesson anymore and is the #yoorsfebruary2021 . Code red has been issued, just about the whole country is down again. Many schools close again. I see the despondency, she wonders when the end is going to be a little normal again.

What strikes me is the risk-avoiding behavior around me. Not so long ago KNMI warned with code red and most people went to work anyway. Observant, slow driving and maybe coming too late. Yet most of them went on the road, with a high exception or if it works allowed, you worked at home. About the fact that safety is important, and that it can be prevented from overloading the hospitals, you can't hear me. But I sincerely wonder if we are not teaching too much risk-avoidance behavior and transferring it to the younger generations.

Yesterday my eldest daughter (16 years old) wanted to go skating. I immediately got up to go with me, pulled my coat and looked for the skates. She was dripping after me and putting all sorts of risks on the table. “Mom, laten we niet naar de brug schaatsen, misschien is het ijs daar te dun. Laten we niet teveel op één plek gaan staan, straks scheurt het ijs. Mam, heb jij eigenlijk wel een touw mee en van die prikdingen? “She was rattling through one piece.

It is good that she maps the risks and thinks about them, but it takes the place of inadiness and pleasure too much. Now it was about the ice, yesterday about the mouthcaps and the routes in the school, keeping distance. Spontaneous matters are first considered and analysed, risks are identified with the result that opportunities remain.

The past week gave risks on the ice and on the road. But it also gave opportunities. Opportunities to go outside, enjoy the sun, have fun on the ice, see people laugh and move again. Together.

Today, many schools are closed, but it offered my daughter a chance: Time to get started with her passion, photograph. Resilience, flexible and do without thinking about risks