I am a wanderer with a background in theology and a penchant for quirky facts. Environmentalists have compared Dillard to Thoreau, Dickinson, and Emerson. Like Emerson, she sees the virulence in nature as well as the beauty that entrances her. Annie Dillard is a poet. While gathering information for this piece, I spoke with Annie who said she was very honored to be our first living EarthSaint.
Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment.
There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees. There are creatures under our feet, creatures that live over our heads, but trees live quite convincingly in the same filament of air we inhabit, and, in addition, they extend impressively in both directions, up and down, shearing rock and fanning air, doing their real business just out of reach. A blind man's idea of hugeness is a tree. I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.