Chapter 11: Stalking

I found out the hard way that waiting is better than pursuing.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

In stalking, that is. Otherwise, I would pursue first and wait later. But what do you stalk? Whom do you stalk? Dillard stalks muskrats. I stalk Dillard. 

Chapter 10: Fecundity

A scientist calls it the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A poet says, "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower / Drives my green age."

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

And Dillard calls it a contract: "if you want to live, you have to die." F=ma. The iterated algorithm. The last waltz of Stoppard's Arcadia. 

Chapter 9: Flood

I expect to see anything at all.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

In Chapter 2: Seeing Dillard writes, "I see what I expect." Now she is seeing more, being seen less. She has mastered the art of sight. 

Chapter 8: Intricacy, revisited

If you analyze a molecule of chlorophyll itself, what you get is one hundred thirty-six atoms of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen arranged in an exact and complex relationship around a central ring. At the ring's center is a single atom of magnesium. Now: If you remove the atom of magnesium and in its exact place put an atom of iron, you get a molecule of hemoglobin. The iron atom combines with all the other atoms to make red blood, the streaming red dots in the goldfish's tail.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Why haven't AP biology and AP chemistry taught me this? I learn from Dillard in so many other dimensions. I drew five stars and wrote "Love Love Love!!!" in the margins. Here is the middle ground I've been looking for--between literature and science.