It would seem to me that, as humans, we like to lie to ourselves. Sometimes this reflexive instinct can, on the surface, strike me as a form of ego-massaging, but mostly I think it serves as a form of self-preservation.
What kind of lies am I talking about? Oh, how about that if you don’t dress like a slut, then you won’t get raped. Or perhaps that Canada doesn’t get enough sun to even bother worrying about skin cancer. And surely, you’ve heard that high-school is the best time of your life?
I suppose if we didn’t lie to ourselves about some of these things, we’d kill ourselves from worry. So, yeah, a bit of self-preservation me thinks.
Here’s a lie that I realized that I tell myself: House fires happen to people that smoke in bed. Or drunk people that knock candles over late at night. Or perhaps to someone cooking up french fries with a huge vat of grease. Basically: other people — certainly not you, and certainly not me.
And I also tell myself: If a fire starts in your garage, you’ll have time to round up the family and trot yourself out the door — maybe even while grabbing a photo album or laptop on the way.
These lies were kicked right up in my face this past weekend. They slapped me hard, and left me tear-stained.
I can tell you from being an eye witness to my neighbour’s house fire that started in their garage this past weekend: non-smoking, non-french-fry-cooking, sober people suffer the tragedy of a house fire. In fact, it can even happen to one of the smartest, sweetest, most charming families you know.
And once it starts, the smoke takes over the house so fast that you cannot see or breathe. So, suffocatingly, terrifyingly fast. The fire trucks arrive quickly, but by the time they do, half of your home is charcoal.
Photograph by: Mike Carroccetto, The Ottawa Citizen
Although my neighbours have lost a great deal, they did not lose each other in this fire because they were not home at the time. Of the three pets, one dog and one cat escaped, and sadly, the second dog was killed from the smoke.
As a community, we are all so grateful that our neighbours are safe. But promise me that out of all the lies you need to keep alive for your own emotional self-preservation, get rid of this one: house fires are so rare; I don’t need to worry about it. Instead:
- Plan your family’s fire exit
- Do what you can to fire-proof your home
- And last but not least, regularly check that your smoke alarms are in working order
These things don’t actually take that long to do. (As you can imagine, my family did them all about a thousand times this weekend.) So, take an hour aside this weekend and have a family meeting. You’ll feel better, and so will I.
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