Cautious

Had a brief meeting with the class master of Euterpe - it's kind of a regular meeting so that we parents could be updated with the progress of our children in the school.

Vivian and I found ourselves in a small classroom; the teacher was a young chubby lady. My wife sat down and did the talking; I brought my daughter to a corner and tried to play with her - but both of us were more interested in the conversation.

After a brief exchange in thanking, the teacher said, "Euterpe is cheerful and active, but I would say she's very cautious. You see, whenever we brought the class for a new game - seesaw or slide or whatever - she would never be the first to try. She would let a few of her classmates try it, and, after seeing the thing is OK, then she would be happy to join."

"Oh, that's probably because she fell so many times when she was a baby ..." Vivian answered, and she went on to describe a few incidents at home.

Sitting aside, I said nothing. Just that the ordinary interpretation of the meaning of cautious intrigued me. Yes, we feel something safe when so many people did it or are doing it. More often than not we use this as the criteria of safety - rather than examining objectively the task at hand.

Alas, that doesn't always work, and not uncommonly results in a mass catastrophe - for example, in the financial market.