I think the authors main point in the short story was that people who are not indigenous to a specific area and do not know the heritage of the culture should not mess with things that they know nothing of. Oddly enough, people in other countries, and possibly even here in North America, share a very sacred relationship with nature. They feel there is a balance between their people and the land. So, for someone with no knowledge of the history and no understanding of the indigenous peoples beliefs, to essentially "leave a mark" where there wasn't one before can lead to potentially negative repercussions. One example that comes to mind is Native Americans and their spiritual journeys involving peyote. It is, in their beliefs, bad to take peyote if it is not offered to you by one of their people. So, buying it off the streets or something, they believe, will give you "bad karma" for lack of a better term. As far as relating to the point of the story, I had a friend a long time ago who bought peyote from a guy he knew and proceeded to eat it. Once the effects started to kick in, he began having a very bad trip. He began to go crazy and as a matter of fact, to this day he has never been the same. I think this is a prime example of what the author was implying in her story. That you can't just go around messing with what may be to some "sacred" things, because you may not know of the spiritual powers behind it. I think the author made many valid points and brought up a
