This world contains over two hundred million insects for each human being. Scientists have discovered that there are more than nine hundred thousand different kinds of insects; insects also represent about eighty percent of the world’s species. Recently, soil samples were taken from an acre in North Carolina; it was revealed that in that one acre, with the depth of five inches, there were approximately 124 million creatures to be found. These facts serve as a reminder that the world is close to bursting with these tiny beings, yet we as humans barely take the time to notice them. There are those rare few, however, who have learned to see fully and deeply, and to appreciate the beauty and the violence in the world around them. Annie Dillard
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“You are God. You want to make a forest, something to hold the soil, lock up solar energy, and give off oxygen. Wouldn’t it be simpler just to rough in a slab of chemicals, a green acre of goo?” This is not a symbolic or a representative question. This is Dillard asking—or, rather, demanding—quite honestly and openly before God why he created this breathtaking universe in which we live. He certainly did not need to take the time and effort to make such a world. We could just as easily have survived in a barren wasteland of goo. So why did the Creator choose to design and produce such a diverse world? Dillard does not attempt to fully answer this question—her goal is not to have all the answers, but to raise the right questions. She seems to understand that it is both acceptable and absolutely necessary to approach God openly, with all of one’s frustrations laid bare. She refers to this as the “heave shoulder;” a way to demand that the Lord pay attention to her and answer her cries. I consider the entire book to be a cry of desperation to the Creator, a plea for wisdom and for understanding. She uses the helplessness and the monotony of the insects’ lives to symbolize the monotony in our own human lives, and she is hungry for a sign that our lives mean more than simply a cycle of birth, life and
“You are God. You want to make a forest, something to hold the soil, lock up solar energy, and give off oxygen. Wouldn’t it be simpler just to rough in a slab of chemicals, a green acre of goo?” This is not a symbolic or a representative question. This is Dillard asking—or, rather, demanding—quite honestly and openly before God why he created this breathtaking universe in which we live. He certainly did not need to take the time and effort to make such a world. We could just as easily have survived in a barren wasteland of goo. So why did the Creator choose to design and produce such a diverse world? Dillard does not attempt to fully answer this question—her goal is not to have all the answers, but to raise the right questions. She seems to understand that it is both acceptable and absolutely necessary to approach God openly, with all of one’s frustrations laid bare. She refers to this as the “heave shoulder;” a way to demand that the Lord pay attention to her and answer her cries. I consider the entire book to be a cry of desperation to the Creator, a plea for wisdom and for understanding. She uses the helplessness and the monotony of the insects’ lives to symbolize the monotony in our own human lives, and she is hungry for a sign that our lives mean more than simply a cycle of birth, life and