The Same River Twice

The protagonist in this memoir is one with several interesting/different _____. He seems to be very confused about life, yet at the same time quite intrigued. As Chris awaits the arrival of his baby, he constantly goes to nature for his "escape" of everything that is going on. He uses occurences while he is out in the nature as warnings and symbolic of his own life. As example of this would be when the hawk cries, Chris becomes worried and imagines his wife, Rita, falling and landing on her stomach killing the baby. He also seems to use nature as an escape down his past. Again, while becoming anxious about the baby's arrival, he decides to visit all of the places in the woods that were happy moments of his and Rita's life. I wonder if he does this as almost a wish or attempt of his future with the new baby having a positive outcome.

One thing that I have wondered is if nature is Chris's safety spot because he does not have any responsibility in it. Throughout the memoir, he finds himself constantly rearranging his life due to unhappiness with his job or whereabouts or due to failure. I think that one reason so much peace is found in this wooded area is because Chris is able to watch and learn from nature, but he nothing more than a part of the bigger whole of it. He can not necessarily mess it up or find himself failing while he is out experiencing it. This is really the first time that his moving around and failure is called out by Dane and the repercussions of it all are beginning to hit. I felt like this section was the most prominent with Chris being put in situations where he can not run from his failure due to it beginning to really affect his lifestyles.

I am interested and excited to see the outcome of the couple's baby. I found it interesting with Chris's statement that he said he wanted a girl so he wouldn't be disappointed if it wasn't a boy. This again goes back to the situation of his reoccurring failures and his way to try to not deal with it. With some signs from his nature visits and Chris's negative thoughts and worries of the baby, I am interested to see if it all foreshadowing or if everything with the family works out for the best.

tantamount (p 62) - equivalent, as in value, force, effect, or signification
"Such an insult was tantamount to a Kentucky warning shot..."