Babies
For Dillard, the human experience is worth exploring, and she starts where human consciousness itself starts. She zooms in on the image of a newborn child. They seem fully emotional, true, but once they are done with their periodic fits, she says they experience a resolution that verges on ultimate accomplishment. This symbolic interpretation of newborn consciousness is informative, because she is alluding to a potential experience within all humans of any age, to experience surrender, repose, and appreciation. The child's experience is one of spiritual euphoria and wonder, just by existing.
Sand
For the essayist herself, she is also able to slip into the peaceful euphoria of a newborn appreciating its newfound existence. She says that sand makes her feel like this, even as an adult. Her experience of sand is one of quiet reflection, and although a person can easily overlook it, she cannot help but notice is soft textures and the beauty of the push and pull of the waves as they shape new, beautiful crevices into the sand. She is arguing through this symbol that if one stops and watches nature, they will see eternal artwork.
China
China is an important symbol in the essays, because through traveling to the Far East, Dillard was able to witness a transformation in her consciousness. She sees the variation of the human experience, and the constant flux of culture and custom as she traveled was proof of something eternal that did not change; all the humans she met were perfectly human with valid experiences of reality—even if they varied wildly from her own. This is a spiritual symbol for the artistry of the human experience.
Religion
Of course any conversation about human experience and the nature of reality could logically arrive at some sort of religious discussion, and Dillard's discussion of religion shows such a wonderful spin on the issue. Instead of getting buried in dogma and philosophical systems, she shows the portrait of the religious life in Tielhard de Chardin, an important paleontologist who was first a Jesuit priest before passion for discovery and the human experience led him to science. This is a real life proof that religion and science can belong within the same human experience, and Dillard tells of her meeting this man.
The zeitgeist
The final consideration of the essays is about the zeitgeist, which is a construct designed to capture the "spirit of the age." She is examining the way that technological, cultural, and government progress have come together to produce a wildly unique human experience in the modern era. She says the zeitgeist has an essential drama or concern, namely the pathology of human experience in the wake of such drastic changes as recent history has brought, but she takes hope in the transcendental virtues of love and passion.
