Once there was a little boy.

And one day the boy was walking along a river, thinking little boy thoughts.

And on the other bank of the stream, the boy spied a mother otter with her cubs perched upon a half-submerged log.

The boy watched as the mother otter dove into the river and then came up moments later with a plump salmon.

The boy watched as the mother otter subdued the plump salmon and began to eat it while it still lived.

The boy watched as the body split and he watched the tiny pearls of roe as they spilled out, onto the log and into the water.

The boy watched the baby otters while they scrambled over themselves to feed on the salmon's unborn children.

And then the boy continued walking, unmoved by the spectacle.

But he never forgot it.

One day, many years later, the little boy would walk alone down another river.

While he wouldn't remember it, it would change him forever.

And because he never forgot that afternoon with the otters and the salmon, he could look at it with new eyes and a different understanding.

"If we don't know life, how can we know death?"
-Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)