It's a wager between the badger and me.
Life and I took a ride together tonight. Life sat in the passangers seat, and put on Simon and Garfunkle. I was behind the wheel. Life asked if we could go down an old country road, and I said yes. I took Life into the woods, and we took corners too fast and rolled the windows down, and we breathed in sweet air and felt it in our hair & against our skin & on our lips & on our cheeks & on our shoulders, and it was just becoming dusk. We turned up the music, we heard the rythm, and Life whispered to me how beautiful it all was, and I agreed, and then, all of a sudden, Life leaned over and kissed me. Life kissed me on the lips & tasted sweet & tasted wise, and all at once, as though a vapor, I breathed Life in through the lips that it kissed, until it was inside me.
And we were one.
From then on, with every corner I took, every breath I took in, I could feel Life inside me, resting in my stomach, flaring up everytime I felt alive. And all of a sudden, I was having this mad love affair with Life, and Life was in me and it was showing me beauty and everything was splendid, everything was bright, everything was pure and true and I felt like I was one with it all, with nature, with the sky, with the millions and millions of miles between me and the ocean.
And now I know I am alive.