“In every arable soil in the world we grow grain over tombs — sure, we know this. But do not the dead generation seem to us hard and still as mummies, and their times always faded like scenes painted on walls at Pompeii? We live on mined land. Nature itself is a laid trap. No one makes it through: no one gets out. You and I will likely die of heart disease. In most other times, hunger or bacteria would have killed us before our hearts quit. More people have died at fishing, I read once, than any other human activity, including war.”
–Annie Dillard, For the Time Being (1999)
