{"id":8559,"date":"2013-04-07T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=8559"},"modified":"2026-01-15T20:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:05:26","slug":"protecting-your-downside-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=8559","title":{"rendered":"Protecting your downside….."},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of cliches that people use for the concept of “covering their downside.” It tends to be a financial\/stock market term, which means that you spread your investments over a broad spectrum, so that if one “goes down” there are others that will hopefully come to fruition and you won’t be totally out of pocket.<\/p>\n

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” is another way of saying it. Don’t make your focus in life too narrow. Keep your options open, so that if one door closes, there are a few others that are still open.<\/p>\n

Politicians will say to those pushing the envelope, “cover your ass.” That is, make sure that you have a back up story, an alibi, a way of getting out of the “fix” you may be getting yourself in. I am sure there are many more phrases that say the same thing. They are colourful and convey the message, in an image or a few well chosen words.<\/p>\n

No phrase, though, is as striking, as Archy’s (the cockroach from my last post)<\/a> take on the whole situation –<\/p>\n

\nif you will drink<\/span><\/div>\n
\nhair restorer follow<\/span><\/div>\n
\nevery dram with some<\/span><\/div>\n
\ngood standard<\/span><\/div>\n
\ndepilatory<\/span><\/div>\n
\nas a chaser<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cockroach Canapes maybe \ud83d\ude42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


<\/span>
\nOK, so maybe you have to be a cockroach to really appreciate the metaphor.  I am back to Archy and I may come back to him again. We can learn from cockroaches, they have been on this earth longer than man – there is something to be said for collective wisdom!!<\/p>\n

Then again there is something to be said for those who put all their eggs in one basket for one glorious moment. This is from another of Archy’s  “posts” –<\/p>\n

\nThe Lesson of the Moth<\/span> <\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n
\ni was talking to a moth<\/div>\n
\nthe other evening<\/div>\n
\nhe was trying to break into<\/div>\n
\nan electric light bulb<\/div>\n
\nand fry himself on the wires<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nwhy do you fellows<\/div>\n
\npull this stunt i asked him<\/div>\n
\nbecause it is the conventional<\/div>\n
\nthing for moths or why<\/div>\n
\nif that had been an uncovered<\/div>\n
\ncandle instead of an electric<\/div>\n
\nlight bulb you would<\/div>\n
\nnow be a small unsightly cinder<\/div>\n
\nhave you no sense<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nplenty of it he answered<\/div>\n
\nbut at times we get tired<\/div>\n
\nof using it<\/div>\n
\nwe get bored with the routine<\/div>\n
\nand crave beauty<\/div>\n
\nand excitement<\/div>\n
\nfire is beautiful<\/div>\n
\nand we know that if we get<\/div>\n
\ntoo close it will kill us<\/div>\n
\nbut what does that matter<\/div>\n
\nit is better to be happy<\/div>\n
\nfor a moment<\/div>\n
\nand be burned up with beauty<\/div>\n
\nthan to live a long time<\/div>\n
\nand be bored all the while<\/div>\n
\nso we wad all our life up<\/div>\n
\ninto one little roll<\/div>\n
\nand then we shoot the roll<\/div>\n
\nthat is what life is for<\/div>\n
\nit is better to be a part of beauty<\/div>\n
\nfor one instant and then cease to<\/div>\n
\nexist than to exist forever<\/div>\n
\nand never be a part of beauty<\/div>\n
\nour attitude toward life<\/div>\n
\nis come easy go easy<\/div>\n
\nwe are like human beings<\/div>\n
\nused to be before they became<\/div>\n
\ntoo civilized to enjoy themselves<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nand before i could argue him<\/div>\n
\nout of his philosophy<\/div>\n
\nhe went and immolated himself<\/div>\n
\non a patent cigar lighter<\/div>\n
\ni do not agree with him<\/div>\n
\nmyself i would rather have<\/div>\n
\nhalf the happiness and twice<\/div>\n
\nthe longevity<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nbut at the same time i wish<\/div>\n
\nthere was something i wanted<\/div>\n
\nas badly as he wanted to fry himself<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\narchy<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nAs pragmatic as most of us are, most of the time, I think that there lives within each of us that small dark death wish – that desire to have something so all consuming that we would give up everything for it!!!<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

What are your thoughts on this?<\/p>\n

Have an amazing day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of cliches that people use for the concept of “covering their downside.” It tends to be a financial\/stock market term, which means that you spread your investments over a broad spectrum, so that if one “goes down” there are others that will hopefully come to fruition and you won’t be totally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8561,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8559\/revisions\/8561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}