Odds of Dying

The things that could seriously get in the way of your well-being

When lightning struck during a monsoon storm near our home on July 28, 2016. We went out to chase it. My son, Marius Britt, got this photo. Notice the total absence of sharks.

Standing in a thunderstorm with utter glee, I love being pummeled by raindrops the size of crickets and daring God to strike me. I live among rattlesnakes in the Arizona desert, and respect them greatly, but I don’t really fear them so long as I’ve got a good body’s length between us (except that one time when one trapped me in the garden at the side of the house and I had to use my cell phone to call my wife inside the house so she could call the fire department, but that’s another story). Flying doesn’t scare me (as long as I’m not the pilot, alone and lost over the Northern California wilderness in a developing thunderstorm with a faulty compass, but that’s also another story).

Anyway, here’s what really scares me: I’m terrified being eaten by a shark. So much so that dangling my feet even in a man-made lake gives me the heebie-jeebies. I can muster no happiness at all swimming in the ocean. The fear is totally irrational, I know.

NOTE: A newer version of this article, with updated statistics and additional context, is here.