The Same River Twice pg 152-188

I don't know why but after reading this section I really want to experience a hurricane first hand. I really want to see the brute force that mother nature has. "A tremendous gust lifted my feet. My body tipped over the bay, held by wind to the railing, while my legs lifted behind me." As a kid I have always wanted to lean against the wind and have it hold me up, the wind Chris talks about would throw me around like a rag doll. It would be fun to hang on to a rail and just let your body flap in the wind like a flag though. After the hurricane is a very interesting part in the book too. When Chris talks about all the destruction that it wrecks on the landscape. All the wildlife trying to get back to their lives crossing the highway is very interesting because normally you would never see an alligator crossing the highway with their baby alligators. This section really kind of opens up how Chris seems to be depressed with his life and how he has tried many times unsuccessfully to ruin it for himself. He tries to let mother nature make the decision for him to end his life. He has traveled across most of the country and has not been real happy anywhere and his mantra of always going forward seems to have failed him and he has ended up in a very awful place to live and work. When he actually does go back to a place he has been to before, Boston, he finds Rita and with it stability and happiness.

The last section seems very personal to Chris, it shows his experience of the birth of his first child which is very life changing or I feel like it would be life changing for me at least. To have a child that you made, it came from you and is living and breathing and is your responsibility. Your whole life would alter in a matter of hours. When I was younger I really didn't get what the big deal was with having a baby, it was just a child I didn't see past that or why anyone would want to have one and have that responsibility, wouldn't you rather just be free and have fun your whole life. "We stared for many minutes, passing unknown information back and forth through the conduit of of his initial sight." This moment is the first moment of a father and son looking into each others eyes before a lifetime of unknown which I think is very cool and it almost takes you a step back from reality and look at life as a whole.

The other thing I got from this section is a affirmation of how glad I am to not be a woman and have to give birth. That would be absolutely awful!! Not only do you have to carry around the baby for 9 months and not have alcohol or caffeine but you have to go through the whole birth process. "For an hour she moaned, receiving ninety four stitches," 94 stitches!! are you kidding me I would DIE especially being on that part of the body, I am so glad I do not have to go through an ordeal like that.