Annie Dillard, again

Must Be Something in the Air Department: In this weekend's Guardian Review, Robert Macfarlane sings the praises of Annie Dillard.

The best thing is her glee, a pied-piperish glee at being in the world, which she evokes better than anyone else: "I go my way, and my left foot says Glory and my right foot says Amen: in and out of Shadow Creek, upstream and down, exultant, in a daze, dancing, to the twin silver trumpets of praise." When Dillard is in such a mood, it's hard not to follow her recommendation that, on an "excellent" day, you go out for a walk, and "take huge steps, trying to feel the planet's roundness arc between your feet."

Still, when I am in that kind of mood, I don't think such walks are limited to the natural world. That glee 'at being in the world' can be experienced on any walk on the wild side, wherever that may be. Nevermind that beneath the pavement is the beach.