I have hiked and [ have ] backpacked and [ have ] canoed and [ have ] rafted.   I've nibbled on mud and leaves in the Olympic rain forest in Washington.... I've taken my tree-, bird-, and flower-identification books on walks and learned to name names. I have stood still in the woods and just breathed and breathed.... I have seen bears and coyotes and monkeys and whales and dolphins and every time it has been more exhilarating than catching a glipmpse of Al Pacino or Mikhail Baryshnikov on the streets of Manhattan.... Yet through it all, I am still, at bottom, scared of nature. Natalie Angiers, "Natural Disasters"