my parents on the beach at sunrise, April 2008

Why so many forms? Why not just that one hydrogen atom? The creator goes off on one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem unwarranted, and with an abandoned energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here? ... freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given; its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.

- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek