Annie Dillard is without a doubt the best writer on the planet. Period.

Her words have the power to transport us to different worlds and make us see things in a whole new light.

Take, for example, her description of the cleaned clay soldier in a museum case. It may seem unremarkable, but she makes us realize that this is all that future generations will see.

No one will display the men who were crushed beyond repair, their lost parts, or them crawling from the walls.

Future generations will miss the crucial sight of ourselves as rammed earth.

And then there's her account of standing again, rubbing her fingers together and finding more stone stairways, more levels, and the street, the sunlight, the world.

She discovers a van in the parking lot of what used to be, she tries to tell herself, a stable.

But this story is worn out for now, the paradox and scandal of any incarnation occurring in a stable.

More powerful at the moment is the sight of people converging from all over the world, of every color and in every costume, to rub their fingers across a flat hole in a bossy silver star on the cracked marble floor of a cave.

Annie Dillard's writing is truly a wonder to behold.

Like Dillard, I know next to nothing about God.

However, the silent abundance that she enshrines within her book leads me to consider a prayer house as an apt analogy for her writing.

Seamus Heaney has made a comparable observation regarding Yeats, stating that his poetry "builds a church in our ear".

I am brazenly stealing and unashamedly misquoting.

Dillard's language is "punctiform", much like the God she writes about.

Agile, precise, and deeply empathetic, her prose is also withdrawn and contemplative.

This is reading as rumination.

Perhaps it is similar to faith.

It makes me wonder if through her writing, Dillard is attempting to create a space, much like a prayer house, where readers can enter and find a sense of stillness and connection.

Her words seem to have the power to transport us to a place beyond the ordinary, to make us think about the mysteries of life and the divine.

Just as a prayer house is a place of worship and reflection, Dillard's writing becomes a place for us to explore our own thoughts and feelings about God and the meaning of existence.

It is a powerful and thought-provoking experience that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Annie Dillard’s *For the Time Being* is an incredibly unsettling exploration of some of life’s most profound paradoxes.

Through a series of stark and powerful reflections, she delves deep into age-old questions that have plagued humanity for centuries. These questions pertain to suffering, the presence or absence of God in times of despair, and the very nature of human existence itself.

These themes are all too familiar to anyone who has ever grappled with the problem of suffering. We’ve all asked ourselves: Where is God when bad things happen? And what kind of God would allow such intense suffering to occur in the first place?

In reading Dillard's work, I was met with a harsh reality. There was no comfort to be found, no neatly packaged answers to soothe my soul. Instead, I was faced with the raw, overwhelming truth of suffering, laid out before me without any attempt to soften the blow. Her words held no joy, and she seemed uninterested in providing any.

Her writing felt like staring into a vast and bottomless abyss. It was beautiful in its own way, but also terrifying in its unwavering refusal to look away. What I found particularly challenging was her unyielding bleakness when addressing the paradox of a deity in relation to human suffering.

She doesn’t shy away from the difficult question of why, if there is a God, suffering is so deeply intertwined with the fabric of life. In some ways, her inquiry mirrors my own thoughts as I’ve delved into Zen Buddhism, a practice that acknowledges suffering as an inevitable part of existence yet teaches us to remain non-attached to both suffering and joy.

Zen approaches suffering with a sense of acceptance, whereas Dillard seems to be consumed by despair in her contemplation. And yet, despite my personal confusion and the lack of joy in the reading, I still give Dillard a five-star review.

Why? Because the quality of her writing is truly remarkable. Her unflinching confrontation with life's hardest questions and her ability to hold the reader captive in the grip of those paradoxes is a profound accomplishment.

She forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth that not all questions have comforting answers, if any at all. Ultimately, *For the Time Being* left me not only contemplating suffering and God but also the entire human condition.

For anyone brave enough to sit with these difficult questions, this book offers a haunting and thought-provoking journey that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

This is so beautifully written that I find myself completely immersed in it.

Every word seems to be carefully chosen, painting a vivid picture in my mind.

The author's use of language is truly remarkable, making the story come alive.

I can't help but be captivated by the narrative, eagerly turning each page to see what happens next.

As I read on, I realize that I'm going to hate to reach the end.

The thought of leaving this wonderful world that the author has created fills me with a sense of sadness.

I wish the story could go on forever, allowing me to continue experiencing the emotions and adventures it offers.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and I know that soon I will have to say goodbye to this beautiful piece of writing.

Nevertheless, I will cherish the memories it has given me and look forward to reading more works by this talented author in the future.

I’m truly excited to embark on the journey of reading this book once more in 15 or 20 years. I firmly believe that with the passage of time and my own personal growth, I will be able to discover something entirely new within its pages.

For the present moment, I deeply appreciate the remarkable grandness that Dillard manages to convey through writing about small, seemingly insignificant pieces. It is as if she has the magical ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Her words have the power to transport me to a world where the tiniest details hold profound meaning and significance.

Each sentence she writes is like a precious gem, carefully crafted and polished to perfection. I am in awe of her talent and the way she can make me see the world from a completely different perspective. Reading her work is not just an act of entertainment but a transformative experience that enriches my soul and broadens my horizons.

I look forward to the day when I can revisit this book and uncover the hidden treasures that await me. Until then, I will continue to cherish and savor the beauty and wisdom that Dillard has shared with us through her writing.

I revised my opinion and rating after reading, and being angered by, The Letters of Teilhard de Chardin & Lucile Swan. See final paragraphs).

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Man, this was a truly beautiful book. It is filled with profound musings about us and God. Stories from all corners of the world and throughout time intersect, are stepped away from, and then brought back to us. The stories eventually overlap, forming a perfect circle.

As an artist, Art and Fear is one of those books that holds a special place in my heart. It helps remind me of things that I, as an artist and a poet, need to be reminded of. In fact, it's such an important book for me that I re-read it annually. That's a rare thing for me, as I usually read a book once and move on. However, The Razors Edge gets another look about every four years. I think For the Time Being (my first Dillard... I've been missing out) will be at least a bi-annual re-read. We'll see. But right now, I'm all about wanting to know more about Teilhard and Swan... and that other woman (shades of Pierre Bonard...). There's very little information available, and what does exist is either hard to come by or ludicrously costly. The paperback copy of Teilhard and Swan's letters is out of print, and bids on Amazon start at $640 and top out at just under 1k(!). This makes me wonder how Dillard managed to learn about the final cut. (Later note: she relied heavily on The Letters). But upon finishing the book, I was so upset on Lucile's behalf that all I wanted was to try and learn more about how everything unfolded and why God, his globe-trotting work, his (evidently) prolific writing, ongoing battles with The Catholic Church, and Dearest Lucy weren't enough for Teilhard. The man had a lot on his plate. Funny thing, I was exploring the music of Debussy towards the end of this book. I know I will never again be able to hear Girl With the Flaxen Hair and not think of Teilhard and Swan before everything went wrong.

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THE LETTERS:

I honestly cannot fathom how Dillard could have read this compilation and come to the conclusion that de Teilhard and Swan were in love at the end of his life. After war, long separations, and the spell cast on de Chardin by the ex-wife of a close friend, Teilhard's once deep feelings for Swan had all but vanished. Instead of "you are my light", "I love you", and ruminations on what it felt like to stand at the front gate of her Peking house and pine for her when she was not in town, we get scattered "Dearests" and constant (apparently cruelly oblivious) mentions of her replacement's name(!). No. At the end, the lovely Miss Swan was rowing the love boat all by herself, and she was painfully aware of it. Her letters to de Chardin, where she all but begged him to love her again as he had so long ago in Peking, are truly heartbreaking. What makes it even more so is that in his responses, he pretty much ignored her questions. He deliberately failed to address her agitation, seemingly in an attempt to keep a lid on the simmering panic of this woman he'd long since ceased to (chastely!) desire. He was so over her, knew very well that she still loved him, and simply didn't want to deal with it.

Swan sacrificed everything for de Chardin and loved him deeply until the end of her days. But it was only after a long illness and in the final moments of his life that de Chardin asked his Jesuit brothers to bring Lucile to him. What words were exchanged at that meeting, we will never know.

Wow.

Simply wow.

I have a profound feeling that this is the beginning of an extremely LONGGGG love affair with Annie Dillard.

Her work offers a brilliant reflection on the question of what on earth we are doing here when living an individual life seems so incredibly out of proportion to the 100 billion humans who have ever lived.

The writing is beautiful, and the way she weaves together disparate threads into a single work is VERY impressive.

I'll be pondering this for a long, long time.

And DANG, I really need to read some Teilhard!

It's amazing how Dillard's words can make us stop and think about the significance of our individual existences in the grand scheme of things.

Her ability to connect different ideas and concepts is truly remarkable.

I can't wait to explore more of her works and see what other insights she has to offer.

Maybe Teilhard's writings will provide an interesting counterpoint or additional perspective.

Either way, I'm excited to continue this literary journey.

I recently blogged, I have a crush on Annie Dillard.

Everything I've read by her has been truly astounding. It's as if she opens up a whole new world, making me see things from perspectives I never thought possible. Her works are not only eye-opening but also deeply inspiring.

In this unusual collection of essays, she delves into her thoughts and experiences on life, spirituality, nature, and God. She presents a unique argument that shows both our insignificance in a grand, unknowable universe and yet our crucial roles as gods in our own lives and the lives of those we encounter.

The book is filled with droll and quirky commentary on her travels to Israel and China. It also contains countless quotes from preeminent Kabbalist rabbis, paleontologists, and various spiritual thinkers and searchers, spanning from 300 B.C.E until the very recent present.

This collection is a thought-intensive read, but it also has many rest stops that allow the reader to pause and consider these age-old, important questions about life. It's a book that makes you think, reflect, and perhaps even change the way you view the world around you.

A beautifully written book indeed. It is the result of painstaking construction by a woman who has a longing for holiness. However, she seems to have a rather peculiar stance as she desires holiness yet shuns God. It is a complex and perhaps somewhat tragic situation. She embarks on this journey of seeking holiness through her own means, without the guidance and presence of the divine. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that her efforts are in vain. Without God at the center of her pursuit, she ultimately gets neither true holiness nor the fulfillment she so desperately craves. The book delves deep into her inner turmoil and the consequences of her choices, painting a vivid picture of a soul adrift in a world of its own making.

Sand. It is formed by the collision of grains of stone and sediment, a process that mirrors the encounters we have in life.

Encounters. Just as sand grains collide, we too collide with ideas, words, and beings in the most unexpected ways. These encounters shape us and our perspectives.

Thinker. I am a thinker, and upon rereading this piece for my capstone assignment, I have given the words spoken much more consideration.

Evil. The motifs of encounters are tied in with themes of sand, and perhaps there is an element of evil in the chaos of these collisions. But there is also beauty and growth.

As I reflect on this braided essay, I realize that our encounters, like the formation of sand, are both random and purposeful. They have the power to break us down or build us up.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have read and reread this piece, and for the insights it has given me into the nature of encounters and the role they play in our lives.

It has made me a more thoughtful and reflective person, and I look forward to the many encounters that lie ahead.

I truly relish Annie Dillard's writing, although frequently I'm completely at a loss as to what she's getting at. Or perhaps I do understand the subject matter she's discussing, yet I'm clueless as to what point she's attempting to convey regarding it, or even if she's aiming to make a point at all. This particular book gives the impression of being a mosaic composed of ideas, quotations, trivia, biography, and memoir. It's as if she took every fascinating note she had regarding: holiness and grace and natural history and the multitudinous humanity and vastness and time and accident and malformity and prayer and paradox, and meticulously constructed a tidy little structure from those notes. It's difficult to precisely state what the overall sum of it all amounts to. But also: why aren't more books comprehensive in nature?

"The Chinese soldiers who posed for their 7,000 individual clay portraits while breathing air must have regarded it as a remarkable difference that the workers buried only their simulacra, enabling their sons to purchase their flesh at a later time. One can't help but wonder what they did during the months and years they gained. One also wonders what one is oneself engaged in these days."

I truly relished her other literary works, such as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. However, when it came to this particular book, I found it rather disturbing.

Since I am a firm believer in God, the questions she poses within the pages of this book made me feel somewhat uneasy.

Nevertheless, as I continued to read, I gradually let down my guard. I came to the realization that she was simply expressing the very thoughts that had been lingering in my own mind.

This book does not offer any definitive answers, yet it poses important - indeed, crucial - questions for all the right reasons.

It is my sincere belief that everybody should take the time to read and reflect upon its content. By doing so, we can begin to probe some of the greatest mysteries of life.

Perhaps through this process of reading and reflection, we will gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.