NO WARNINGS

Whenever we’re on the interstate and driving from one state to another, as we enter the next state, we are greeted by a sign that says “Welcome to wild, wonderful West Virginia” or Pennsylvania welcomes you”. The next sign says “Speed limit 65mph, radar enforced”. The last sign, if there is one, says “No warnings”. The state welcomes us and then immediately warns us that it won’t tolerate speeding. Thus, if we are caught speeding, we have no excuses. We have been warned!

Warnings are part and parcel of life. We warn our children that if they don’t behave, they will be punished; if they don’t study, they will fail. Employers warn their employees that if they do not do their job, they will soon not have one. There are warning on food products and, in fact, on almost everything we purchase. Most of these, I suspect, are placed on the labels at the behest of the corporate legal staff to save the company legal problems in case some foolish consumer uses the product incorrectly.

The sad part in all of this is that we should not need to be warned in the first place. Why do we need to be warned that speeding kills; that smoking causes cancer; that no one ever wins a war; that if we don’t study, we will fail; that if we don’t do our job, someone else will take our place? Why do we need to be warned to not do what we know we should not do and, conversely, to do what we know we should do?

Human nature? Yes, if we deem we humans to be selfish, sinful and stupid, which is probably the case, is it not? We are indeed selfish, as everything we think, do and say starts with the self. It is when we fulfill our own desires to the detriment of others that we get into trouble as we hurt them. We know better but often we do not do better, do the better thing.

We are also sinful in that there are times when we deliberately hurt others, even the ones we love the most. We drudge up some reason that allows us to hurt, whether that reason is pay back for a hurt the other caused or whether that reason is that what we are doing is what we want to do no matter whom it hurts. Again, we know better, but we do what we know is sinful anyway.

Then, of course, we simply do something stupid. We drive too fast, eat or drink too much, take chances that we know are foolish, needlessly place ourselves in a dangerous situation: the list is long. We have been warned and, as always, we know better; but no one stops us and we do not stop ourselves, much to a later chagrin and pain and hurt. And then we wonder how we could have been so stupid.

Why do we ignore the warnings? It’s not that we don’t believe them because we do. It’s not that we feel we will never get caught because we know we eventually will. It’s not that we believe we are immune to pain and hurt because we know we are not. So why?