One In Fifty Million

Let’s see … my chances of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip are 500 million to 1. So we say it’s pretty much impossible, BUT, that “one” bothers me. The chances of being killed by lightning are 2.3 million to 1. There’s that “one” again. It’s 7,000 to 1 that you will be considered possessed by Satan.

The Large Hadron Collider will start smashing protons together this summer in Switzerland. This thing could, presumably, create a Black Hole and, if you know anything about black holes, then you know it’s the ballgame for Planet Earth. Within a very short time, and I mean very short, everything and everybody disappears down the rabbit hole to Wonderland. If UFOs do visit us, they’re going to wonder what happened.

The odds of this happening are, let’s get real, negligible. Very negligible. One in fifty million. Ah, there’s that “one” again, the indication that the chance does exist.

There’s no “one” when it comes to my playing for the Yankees and hitting a grand slam to win the Series. Nor is there one chance that I can flap my arms and fly to the moon. But when it comes to inventing a machine that has a one in anything chance of sucking the earth into nothingness, that is worthy of deep thinking.

It doesn’t mean that we can do this 50 million times before we all go down the crapper, but that somewhere in all those attempts it can happen. Could be near the end, could be halfway – or it could be the first time out.