Extremes

" It's a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake. It makes things vivid. When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world." (pg. 183)

I have never been in an extreme life of death situation, but here I understand what Tim is saying. It takes one extreme present (death) to fully be able to recognize and cherish the other extreme (life). People in the world often ask, "Why do bad things have to happen?" I believe the same rule applies here. Bad things are present so that good things seem more real and aren't taken for granted.

This summer I have traveled all around the country it feels like. I went on Summer Field Studies which went to the Grand Canyon and Colorado and the week after SFS I went on a family vacation to Michigan. Over those three weeks I feel that I can relate to this passage twice.

When hiking in the canyon, it kind of scared me to know that people had died by falling into the canyon. This presence of the possibility of death with one wrong step made me watch where I was walking. I would say that this danger brought me fully awake. Also, when I was in Michigan, my family and I went to a butterfly house. I know that doesn't sound too deadly or dangerous, but I felt like the lives of the butterflies were in my hands. The danger or possibility of stepping on the free flying butterflies made me take my steps with caution. I felt like I had never observed more in my entire life because I was so awakened by the thought of killing a butterfly.

Random Fact I learned : Butterflies only live for 3 to 10 days... So if I did step on one, it's not like they really had a future anyways =/