May 06, 2005
Decisions
“So where are you going on your Honeymoon.”
“Costa Rica.”
“Oh, that’ll be nice.”
“I hope so. It’s supposed to be, you know, not an evil place to go. Eco friendly, democratic.”
“Zip-lines thought the jungle.”
“Yeah, I heard about those.”
“You’ll want to be careful. I knew a woman who went to Costa Rica and did the Zip-line thing. She's flying down the line through the jungle -- it’s amazing; 500 feet up, just booking through the canopy -- and then ahead of her she spots this little howler monkey on the line...”
“I think it’s spider monkeys there.”
“...spider monkey, whatever, hanging on the line. And she realizes -- she’s only got second to think about this -- she realizes that if she hits the monkey his hand is going to get stuck the rigging, and who knows, maybe the rigging comes loose and she plummets into the jungle. Or maybe the monkey grabs hold of her and starts chewing her face off. Rabid, you know? Kill her before she gets to the landing.”
“So what did she do?”
“She lifted up her feet and kicked that monkey off the line. Just punted him.”
“Wow.”
She felt terrible about it. He fell like 500 feet -- killed on impact. But what could she do? It was life and death. You’ve got to kick that monkey off the line.”
