Annie Dillard’s Seeing is a written work that really makes me think about the way that I view the world around me. Dillard makes numerous points about the importance of seeing using intense imagery, scientific explanations, and vivid descriptions. Dillard writes, “It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open.” She discusses the necessity of noticing the minutiae in life and nature. I think that her beliefs surrounding observation are eye-opening...Pun intended. How often is it that we really look at what is around us? We often walk with our heads down (or even worse- looking at our cell phones), on a mission, with our only goal being to reach our destination. Unless I take the time for myself to be still, meditative and focused, it is rare that I ever actually admire the ants on the ground or the cut stems of the grass. Dillard quotes Stewart Edward White when discussing the importance of minute observations, “I have always maintained that if you looked closely enough you could see the wind—the dim, hardly-made-out, fine debris fleeing high in the air.” Can I really see the wind if I look hard enough? I guess I’ll have to try that.
But even when we see, are we really seeing everything? Dillard doesn’t think so, and turns to science to back up her thoughts, “Peeping through my keyhole I see within the range of only about thirty percent of the light that comes from the sun; the rest is infrared and some little ultraviolet, perfectly apparent to many animals, but invisible to me.” What a weird thing to think about. Not only is what I see different from what someone else sees, but what humans see is different from what many animals see. Dillard’s essay Seeing really pushed me to think about how I notice what is around me. It makes me want to go outside and really observe what I normally let pass me by without a second thought.