Don’t Try This At Home.

A serviceman of the Belarussian Interior Ministry’s special unit demonstrates his skills during a show in Minsk, February 28, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

How could I resist not commenting on this photo from the Reuters Oddly News section this morning? And what on earth was this poor soul thinking while doing this?

I can only imagine what the army discipline in Bellarussia looks like – I take it that civil rights and safety guidelines on the job must be different than those in our luxuriously “free-er” western world.

Ok, so maybe the guy did not have a choice – that’s the rational part. But, what’s troubling about human nature is the fact that chances are the daredevil in him made him do it. Yeah, sure: Stick your head in the fire – and get your 15 min of fame – people will cheer your bravado and pat you in the back. Right?…

Yeah, right! So, you know what I am talking about: Sometimes the daredevil, lizard brain in us urges us to do weird things. No, you would never stick your head in the fire, but you would do other things – no, absolutely not life threatening (not you, anyway). Like keep on doing the same old thing you have been doing all along, thinking that you’ll wake up one morning and everything will somehow be miraculously different. Like keep on putting off the things you know you have to do but somehow you can’t bring yourself to do them.

You get the point. At least the Belarussian soldier may not have had a choice. How about you?