Prognosticators said that the most profound challenge of the new
century would be maintaining a livable earth. But "livable" wasn't
enough for me. I was greedy. For my daughter I wanted open space, I
wanted fast-flowing waterways and forested mountains. I wanted her to
witness, if she so desired, an iridescent green and black river of
migrating diurnal moths.
-- Elizabeth Royte. The Tapir's Morning Bath: Mysteries
of the Tropical Rain Forest and the Scientists Who Are Trying to Solve
Them. Houghton Mifflin, 2001, p. 316-317.
Plotted on a graph, with time on the
x axis and contentment on
the
y, the line that defined my mood would rise at a forty-five
degree angle. My
R² would be close to 1, with outlying
points for the day I received 131 chigger bites, the night the
termites streamed over my head while I slept, the times I became
disoriented in the forest, and the half-dozen Bambis at which
mathematical equations brought tears of frustration to my eyes.
-- Elizabeth Royte. The Tapir's Morning Bath: Mysteries
of the Tropical Rain Forest and the Scientists Who Are Trying to Solve
Them. Houghton Mifflin, 2001, p. 317.