finished Pilgrim at Tinker Creek… I guess the nap this afternoon gave me enough juice to finish it out. I read books quickly.. I’m sure there are lots of things I don’t even pick up, just like a complicated movie, sometimes you have to see/read it twice, but I usually remember the stories and this book had a great number of them (muskrats… the frog & the giant water bug, grasshoppers and locusts). From the last chapter, page 275:

“There is not a guarantee in the world. Oh your needs are guaranteed, your needs are absolutely guaranteed by the most stringent of warranties, in the plainest, truest words: knock, seek, ask. But you must read the fine print. ‘Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’ That’s the catch. If you can catch it will catch you up, aloft, up to any gap at all, and you’ll come back, for you will come back, transformed in a way you may not have bargained for — dribbling and crazed. The waters of separation, however lightly sprinkled, leave indelible stains. Did you think, before you were caught, that you needed, say, life? Do you think you will keep your life, or anything else you love? But no. Your needs are all met. But not as the world giveth. You see the needs of your own spirit met whenever you have asked, and you have learned that outrageous guarantee holds. You see the creatures die and you know you will die. And one day it occurs to you that you must not need life. Obviously. And then you’re gone. You have finally understood that you’re dealing with a maniac.”