And my, how perceptive you are, Carina, to pick up on the fact that Mark is a “Traditionalist…”  Not quite a misogynistic asshole, but fairly narrow in his thinking…  and would sooner have you make him flapjacks and pour him coffee as save his ass from a close scrape…

But let’s try to think a few moves ahead here, shall we?  This is not a video game where we are trying to save a princess and if we fail we get to hit the re-start button and give it another go…  What’s on the other side of the chasm, other than more depth, darkness (wait- we still seem to be bathed in natural light for some reason) and despair?  If we are talking probabilities, then what are we relying on to point us further in the direction we are going?  We are fixated on a flimsy land bridge that offers no more assurance than if we just curled up in a fetal position and decided to call it a life…

But then again, we need to move our story ahead.  And standing and talking is no way to do that- so onward!  Or to borrow the Wisconsin state motto, “FORWARD!”