“At the time of Lewis and Clark, setting the
prairies on fire was a well-known signal that meant, ‘Come down to the
water.’ It was an extravagant gesture, but we can’t do less. If the
landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is
the very stuff of creation. After the extravagant gesture of creation
in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in
extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness,
heaping profusions on profligacies with ever fresh vigor. The whole
show has been on fire from the word go.
I come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look, I see fire: that which isn’t flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.”
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
I come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look, I see fire: that which isn’t flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.”
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
