Dillard’s Teaching a Stone to Talk takes the reader on a journey of discovery--the discovery of nature, of spirituality, and of oneself.
Beginning her essays on the surface level with a description of what she saw and felt, she tries to find meaning at a deeper level, explaining a bigger picture.
Sometimes she takes on a truly romantic interpretation of nature when she says that “there are angels in those fields, and, I presume, in all fields, and everywhere else,” meaning that there are signs of God in nature if we just look closely enough.
Other times, she takes a more philosophical stance, comparing humans to mangrove trees floating around aimlessly. However, instead of adopting a nihilistic view, she encourages the readers to celebrate the journey through nowhere: “Even if things are as bad as they could possibly be, and as meaningless, then matters of truth are themselves indifferent; we may as well please our sensibilities and, with as much spirit as we can muster, go out with a buck and wing.”
A major theme in her essays is fear, which is usually caused by ignorance or irrational thinking. For example, the book starts with a story of Dillard experiencing a solar eclipse: As soon as the people see the shadow rushing toward them, they panic: “From all the hills came screams.” In the story “God in the doorway” she describes her fear of Santa Claus because she thinks he is God himself and only regrets her panic reaction later when she is more mature, realizing that it was just a neighbor who wanted to bring love and joy to her. Thus, she concludes that humans have a tendency to fear God because they do not understand his true intentions: “So once in Israel love came to us incarnate, stood in the doorway between two worlds, and we were all afraid.”
Therefore, to truly understand the world, it is necessary to observe it with open eyes and an open mind.
