“Fecundity” | Anne Dillard | Pilgrim At Tinker Creek - Chapter 10

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“Dillard has a nightmare in which she watched two Luna moths mate and produce eggs that hatched into fish and covered her bed. She then begins to think about what really bothers her and us as humans. She concludes that it is not plants that bother us, but the animal fecundity that we find appalling. She explains how nature is as careless as it is bountiful. Dillard then creates the comparison with fecundity and growth. Also she incorporates that with growth, there comes death. All things will die at one point and it is how life works. She also discusses the various things creatures need to survive and reproduce. She finds the goose neck barnacle to be the most interesting creature because it has to beat the odds and cling to debris in the ocean to survive. She believes that we need create a few organisms and give them what they need to ensure survival, rather than have millions of eggs for only a few to survive. Dillard concludes this chapter by saying that we are not here to judge nature or try and change it to our liking, but to simply enjoy it and understand that death is a part of life for all organisms.”