Butterflies

When you think of the fragility of the human body, it's nothing less than terrifying. It only takes one pound of pressure for a sword (or any sharp edge) to cut through skin. It only takes one of a few select organs to malfunction to kill us on the spot. It only takes a single airborne disease to wipe out 90% of the population. It could happen. I don't think it will but it could.

When you look at things from that point of view, recklessness becomes stupidity, impulsiveness becomes pain, and adventure becomes death.

We really shouldn't jump on the bed, or buy collectors weapons, or skateboard, or light off fireworks. I'm not saying that we'll ever be safe, but if you look at it outside of probability, it's quite astounding the things we get away with.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that these things are probable. I'm just illustrating a point.

Yet for all the fragility of a human, we can never graze the wings of a butterfly. That's tragedy at its highest level, that something so simple can suffer and die in such a manner, at the hands (no pun intended) of an action without malevolence, an action without butterfly consent.

But I guess I'll trust to luck and drive my car to the bus station tomorrow. What else can I do?