Apr 20
"In nature," wrote Huston Smith, "the emphasis is in what is rather than what ought to be." I learn this lesson in a new way every day. It must be, I think, that in a certain sense only the newborn in this world are whole, that as adults we are expected to be, and necessarily, somewhat nibbled. It's par for the course. Physical wholeness is not something we have barring accident; it itself is accidental, an accident of infancy, like a baby's fontanel or an egg-tooth or a hatchling.
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek