True Annie Dillard

Again, I know, even as i hunt and peck for these letters, that if I write this I run the risk of you not continuing on down to read the two posts from last night (I have been a blogging MACHINE, baby- what a little MoZilla will do for you- thanks to all those who helped get the old laptop running)

I wanted to write out the real Annie Dillard quote. I was paraphrasing before- relying on a two year lapse in memory. But here it is in it's real flesh. I love it. (This is the whole paragraph from whence the quote came.)

" It is still the first week in January and I've got great plans. I've been thinking a lot about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free suprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But-- and this is the point-- if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat kit paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go on your rueful way? **It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.**"