Respond to cruelty as a witness to beauty

Cruelty is a mystery, and the waste of pain. But if we describe a world to compass these things, a world that is a long, brute game, then we bump against another mystery: the inrush of power and light…beauty, a grace wholly gratuitous, as careless and spontaneous as the curl of a stem or the kindling of a star…beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.

—Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

More about Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: episode 26, Pilgrim at Little Piney River: ad-free for subscribers, with ads along with resources