The Temptations of Two- Emily

One theme that I picked up on from this reading was the idea of safety vs. taking risks. The entire story is about whether it is less dangerous to travel in a pair, although you take more risks, or to travel alone and take the safer route. An example is when she says "Years ago, I made a rule for myself: if you go solo, reduce the variables, go someplace familiar. It's a rule I seem to have invented only to break." She's saying that her safety is in danger when she travels alone, yet she still takes the risk. She also brings it up at the end of the excerpt when she reflects on the importance of safety. "What is safer? The folly of two or the caution of one? Neither and both. But the question is flat; safety is not why I go." She is saying that there is always an element of risk. However, safety is not all that important to the trip in the grand scheme of things, in the end you go for the risk and not for the safety.