“We watched the storms of late afternoon. Sun descending in a welter of brawling purple clouds. Spokes of the gold wheel across the sky, jags and jets of lightening flicker from cloud to cloud to earth. Mighty kettledrums thunder in the distance. My wind gauge reads thirty five knots. The trees sway, the wind booms through the forest” (Abbey, 54).

Abbey talks about the role of the watcher. The watcher’s job is to sit and watch nature around them in the context of the wind, fires, weather, birds etc. He talks about Einstein and how he saw the world as comprehensible and because you could understand it because it’s properties could be described in a formula. He also brings us Francis Bacon’s perspective, “knowledge is power.” I like this quote (the quote from page 54) because it represents one of the main points of the paper that you don’t always have to have a technical explanation for everything, or an equation to understand things, sometimes the simple things and enjoying them are just as powerful.

“I could go. I could simply angle off the path, take one step after another, and be on my way. I could walk to Point Borrow, Mount Mckinley, Hudson’s Bay. My summer jacket is put away; my winter jacket is warm” (Dillard, 252).

I like this quote because up until this point Dillard has emphasized the idea of migrating south. She has been talking about the birds, their restlessness and their excitement to migrate south, she has been depicting the weather getting cooler. This is a turning point, the point when she talks about the idea of grabbing her winter coat, setting off and going north.