And Then What?

When a driver, in a few minutes, let his road rage turn into assault causing a victim broken limbs, his life changed. He became a criminal. He ran off after the crowbar incident and is now  sought by the police. Because a woman honked her horn at him that, she stated, was "to warn him" of  her turn, he pursued her car and meted out, when she parked, what he deemed to be "justice". One minute of annoyance turned into a serious crime. If only each of them thought before each of  their actions, "And then what?" the situation may not have happened at all. How many times do we act impulsively without asking ourselves that kind of question? I think most of us do often in our lives. We remember those mistakes we made, and think what would have been if only we'd thought of the possible outcomes beforehand. Rash action gets us into all sorts of trouble even in day to day small things. Should I wear that piece or say that or cut my hair or buy that item, are among the many decisions we make daily. Investors, gamblers and entertainers have to make huge judgements that affect their entire lives and livings. Surely, they must ask themselves before they take those steps, if I do this, "And then what?" . Politicians  tread a fine line in everything they say whether it be as a tweet or an e mail or during an interview. What they "say" is watched closely and reported by experts in the matter of catching the public eye.  Unfortunately, electronic text has no capacity for verbal expression. Black and white cyber icons, instead, can be dropped in to give text colour. Once words have been spoken or texted, they are not easily taken back. Repaired impetuous outbursts still evidence scars and these are not easily forgotten. In the real world, even though we do say to ourselves "And then what?" we can make the decision to plunge in to just take our chances. Comment and blogging are without boundaries other than good taste, and even then sometimes one slips. Only once did I "slip" but later regretted that I had apologised. In retrospect, I learned that my enemies were actually the tasteless bad guys. But that's rare. The reason humanity continues to progress is to take the step notwithstanding: "And then what?"  Where would we be if the first plane had not taken wing or Columbus had not sailed, the atom bomb was not dropped or global warming wasn't brought to our attention. On the other hand, we use up the trees, melt the arctics, pollute the air, garbage the waters and kill off the wildlife. It's time to ask "And then what?"