How to tame a wild tongue

Meaning of Annie Dillard’s “This is the Life” One of the main points I get from this passage it that most people strive for the same basic goals in life. As she states in paragraph one,”…most cultures prize as ours rightly does, making a contribution by working hard at work at what you love; being in the know, and intelligence; gathering a surplus; and watching; and loving your family above all…” This says most cultures tell their young adults, in order to become successful working men/women in society you have to work hard and provide for your family. Then install those same principles that were given to you from your elders, and pass them on to your kids. Then eventually your kids will do the same and so on, and so on.

This definitely hits close to home because, when I was young I was told in order to become successful, you must study hard in college and earn your degree. From there, get a job that allows you to stabilize you and your family. Then when your kids start to venture out and want to purse their own careers, they can look to you for advice or counseling. In the 9th paragraph she says “What would you do differently, you upon your beanstalk looking at scenes of all peoples at all times in all places? When you climb down, would you dance any less to the music you love, knowing that your music has to be provisional as a bug? …If you descend the long rope-ladders back to your people and time in fabric, if you tell them what you have seen even if no one cares to listen…” What I take from this that she thinks that people in control are advertising things that in the end really won’t matter to the everyday people. They still have to make living and provide for their family’s doing these physical demanding jobs. As she states “Somebody still has to make jugs and shoes, to turn the soil, fish.”

In conclusion, what i get most from this essay is that people who are better off can