Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

Dillard expresses her amazement at the existence of mangroves, which “can and do exist as floating islands, as trees upright and loose, alive and homeless in the water” (155). Mangroves can be separated from shorelines by strong winds or currents and float along rivers and oceans, continuing to grow and develop. Having adapted to exude salt, mangroves can thrive in sea water and can also make their own soil. The mangrove islands can expand, growing new trees and attracting other sea life, such as oysters, shrimp, and starfish to live in the roots. Dillard compares the aimless drifting of these mangrove islands to human existence on Earth: “I alternate between thinking of the planet as home—dear and familiar stone hearth and garden—and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners” (156).

Dillard believes that humans feel at home on Earth but also feel disconnected from the earth and from its other creatures: “We don’t know where we belong, but in times of sorrow it doesn’t seem to be here, here with these silly pansies and witless mountains, here with sponges and hard-eyed birds” (157). Dillard also compares the planet to the mangrove islands, calling it “a sojourner in airless space, a wet ball flung across nowhere” (157).