Arrenvy Bilinski- Topic of Choosing: Annie Dillard

Listening to the piece about the water bug from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” brought me back to the summer after 10^th grade, sitting by the pool and somewhat fulfilling my summer job duties, attempting to race through the required summer reading. Giving it not thought at all, I speedily skimmed through the chapters and wrote my required essays. Upon hearing the excerpt about Water bugs, I wish I had spent more time focusing on the concepts and observations that Dillard has about life. I often feel like I rush through everyday, constantly thinking about the assignments I should be doing, the stress from classes, papers and procrastination. It should be a requirement of life to have to stop everything and spend at least 20 minutes a day to just be outside, listen ad reflect. It’s funny how her tiny eerie observation led her to consider life at the universal scale. Dillard almost seems to reflect Lane’s fourth axiom, how sacred place is local and universal, in that she observes one instance in life (ironically about death) transposes into a global concept that asks: “is every action inherently good?” I believe that every intention starts out as something good in the mind of the conceiver, even if it was a plan to take over the world. Obviously, their intention could be because they want to accomplish a personal goal, that is something good. Or they actually think that they could want to exercise a lot of effort to control that many people! Good luck J