Living Without Worry and Fear
Freedom is defined as a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restrictions. Jeffrey Borenstein has said, “Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond.” However, Anne Dillard suggests a simple and unsophisticated way of life and uses the world of the weasel for motivation to convey this message. Since our ability to think and reason makes us who we are as individuals, it is odd that Dillard marvels at the value of “mindlessness.” Yet, in Anne Dillard’s essay, “Living like Weasels” she uses her encounter with a weasel to demonstrate how we would obtain more out of life through living carefree and without a worry. This freedom translates to a beauty hard for many to see and we should remain grateful for our conscious ability and the fact that our presence provides this beauty to the world. Dillard evaluates the rodent’s way of life, which in reality is pure freedom. This weasel is free to do as it pleases and is not involved in taking on mental activity. Further, the weasel has no human responsibilities and approaches life with no thoughts other than survival. If we approached each day without being mindful, our actions would not be distorted by our biases or motives. Dillard observes, “I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (91).

When Dillard began her essay, she challenged the reader to consider, "Who knows what he thinks?"(88). Dillard is pondering if a weasel is mindless or if the weasel is able to make choices and live by consciousness. Dillard then shares the sleeping and eating habits of the weasel she does this to support the wildness of the weasel. She describes a weasel as wild because “he sleeps in his underground den”…. and “outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home” (Dillard 88).
In Dillard’s essay, she describes how the weasel lives, her observations of the weasel, and then advises we apply these principles to our daily lives. The tone of the paper changes when Dillard indicates “I would like to have seen that eagle from the air” (88-89). At this point she begins to speculate how it would be to live like a weasel. Dillard asserts the weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice (91). With this choice comes struggles and preoccupation. Whereas, a weasel has a beauty with just being and not thinking and there is no choices made other than finding food to survive. As argued in the essay, “a weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity (Dillard 91). What I further interpret from this is that purity is found in the freedom of not having to choose. Unfortunately, people are so preoccupied with the pressures of life. Whereas, a weasel simply lives and is just a weasel with no real thinking needed. They resist the very notion of “necessity” and do not process why or how they exist. Dillard assumes the weasel’s way of life is the greatest way to be in this world. Humans are complicated, are anxious, consider the course of time, or deal with thoughts of death. Like the weasel, we should live life in the moment, deeply experiencing everything deeply and not concerning ourselves with the past. Instead, we should choose to live “with a fierce and pointed will”(91).

When Dillard goes to the pond, she gets joy out of the peace she experiences and the time she just is who she is. For me, this is where I agree most with the author. Instead of living like weasels where we do not have to think from the time we wake until we go to bed, I believe it is important to relax, to do nothing, and to meditate. Through this period where we take a time out, we become recharged and are clearer in our decision making. When Dillard indicates, “I come to Hollins’ pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget (91). I see this as the time she takes to meditate. Dillard further describes the pond as a “Creek with six inches of water and six thousand lily pads” (Dillard 89). In the wintertime, the lily pads turn into “brown and white steers that stand in the middle of it something that looks like a miracle itself” (Dillard 89). These claims paint a picture of a very calm and beautiful place. Dillard joins the opening of the essay with the scene of the pond so she can enlighten the reader of her experience with the weasel. Bottom line, the setting is the weasel’s home and we are transported there to get a sense of how the weasel lives. Further this setting provides a place where Dillard is able to analyze and process what it is like to live like a weasel.
Our ability to reason and to rationalize is what makes us unique and different from wild animals. Just the same, as we get caught up in our own thinking, this can work to our disadvantage. When Dillard asserts that “the weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice,” (91) I think the author is indicating that we do in fact have a choice to live a simpler life and without dignity and concern for deep thought (I don’t see this as abandoning reason though). I see this point more clearly when reading “We could live under the wild rose wild as weasels,” (91) mute and uncomprehending. Dillard further asserts, “We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience - even of silence - by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse” (91). This statement exemplifies how humans can choose any lifestyle they want. Yet, they should still pursue a primary goal and a passion with sheer purpose and persistence like the weasel. The movie “Into the Wild” is an example of where a man was insistent to leave everything he owned behind, to live off of the land. Like the point Dillard makes in her essay, in the movie, a man leaves the world’s complications behind and lives the way he feels a man is supposed to live. He applied determination to live without a job, money, and technology and pursued a life of freedom. He abandons his possessions, gives his savings over to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska while leaving life’s complications behind.

There are some aspects that I support in Dillard’s line of thinking. Like Dillard and the movie noted above, I agree that we should let our worries go and to be at peace with our lives. I also believe that we are blessed to have the ability to think and reason, which is unlike animals. This is a blessing I would not want to let go of. For Dillard, to even sit at the pond and consider how to live like a weasel is an example of our innate ability to comprehend things. Yet, Dillard wasn’t being completely transparent and asking us to live with a mindless purpose. Instead, she challenges us to pursue our purpose our one necessity. “I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you" (Dillard 92). Dillard asserts that we should stick to what we find as necessary. While these necessities may differ from one person to the next, we each can live a deeper rewarding life if we embrace “living like a weasel.” A weasel doesn’t “attack” anything; a weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity” (91). The weasel really must eat to live and this translates to freedom. The weasel has no option than to fight, which is therapeutic because of living a “perfect freedom”. If people lived as animals did, life would be simple. Animals live with minimal thought. They look to survive by finding food and shelter. Dillard suggests that we can learn something from simple, harmless creatures when she asserts “but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of purity of living the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive (91).” We live with worry and fear, to live with a mindless existence is how we should live.
At times it can be exhausting to concern ourselves with seeking answers to everything. From childhood to adulthood, people process and analyze everything. Children ask why the sky is blue. And adults process how to obtain promotions at work so they can make more money. Add more….On the other hand, weasels don’t worry about these things. Weasels just exist and are content as they are. Dillard examines what it is like to not think and instead relax and process nothing. Ultimately, she suggests that if you live for the necessities of life, it can free you – to live like a weasel free of worry and fear. Anne Dillard does a good job to help us understand that living a carefree life is a choice we have and can make. This sensibility and freedom brings beauty to the world. In the end, freedom brings us perfect happiness.

Works Cited
Dillard, Annie. “Living Like Weasels.” Fifty Great Essays. Ed. Robert Diyanni. New York: Pearson, 2013. 88-92. Print