Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“What do we think of the created universe, spanning an unthinkable void with an unthinkable profusion of forms? Or what do we think of nothingness, those sickening reaches of time in either direction? If the giant water bug was not made in jest, was it then made in earnest?”

The narrator struggles throughout the text with the Cruelty and Beauty in Nature, wondering what this says about the nature of God. She questions whether everything is a joke or a mask that hides an ugly face of meaninglessness. It is only when she determines that both ugliness and beauty create meaning that she can reconcile her experiences with cruelty, including the moment when the giant water bug kills and eats the frog.

“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf.”

This quotation aligns with the theme Faith and the Nature of the Divine. The narrator wonders whether life is a series of chances and ordered chaos or if it is designed with intention. The book attempts to answer the question of whether God can be known, and the narrator uses nature to determine the truth.

“The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.”

The narrator references her childhood practice of hiding pennies along a sidewalk or next to trees for strangers to find. She suggests that the world is filled with opportunities for discovery, making The Power of Observation key. By taking the time to look, one reveals both beauty and brutality.