Today I want to reach beyond the individualized concepts of dying and discuss extinction.  As a whole, modern humans view extinction as a phenomenon that happens out there - meaning that it doesn't have much effect on us, but rather is experienced by other manner of flora and fauna unrelated or at most distantly related to us.   We externalize this, and read about it in science books or on blogs. But our relationship to extinction - which is loosely defined as the finite end of a species (when the last of that particular species is biomechanically deceased) - is much more intimate than that.   Generally, modern humans consider themselves removed from nature. Nature, to us, is something that exists separate from us, out there. A forest might be a place we go on a nature walk or a hike, and a river is a pretty site to see as we drive by on the road that passes it.   Our removal of ourselves from nature in this way (though the removal is only a perception, not a reality, but I'll