Kiara Girkins Annie Dillard Response 1

"Few sights are so absurd as that of an inchworm leading its dimwit life. Inchworms are the caterpillar larvae of several moths or butterflies. The cabbage looper, for example, is an inchworm. I often see an inchworm: it is a skinny bright green thing, pale and thin as a vein, an inch long, and apparently totally unfit for life in this world. It wears out its days in constant panic," Annie Dillard, from "Three" pg. 552.

When I read this passage at first, I really didn't think too much about it, I simply smiled at the thought of a little inchworm making its way across the leaf of one of the trees in my backyard. However, when I thought back over the passage, I realized that if it is the fact that it "lives out its days in constant panic" which makes it unfit for this world, then we all may have a bit of a problem. I mean, think about it. When was the last time you went more than a day without stressing about something? We all do it, it's a fast paced world out there and it can be a major pain to try to keep up with. We work none stop, killing ourselves simply to make it to the next stage of our lives until we finally make it to the end and realize all we did was panic about things that really don't matter in the end because they cannot change the end result. So I guess what Annie Dillard is saying, is that because death is a part of this world, if we are in constant panic over death and getting a million things done before death, then we are not ready for this world, much like the little inchworm.