The intro to landscapes of the sacred made some very good points that I've never considered before. The first page really pulled you in too. I especially connected with his comment on being able to smell the "ozone filling the air" just before the storm. Theres nothing more ominous than smelling a storm brewing when your exposed on the face of a mountain!
"The construction of personal and communal identity is invariably related to primal spacial categories... Who we are, in other words, is enseperable from where we are."
This holds deep where ever you go. If someone starts small talk with you, one of the very first questions is always "where'ya from?" It brings so much insight to what type of person your likely to be, culturally. In American respects however, there is a saying from the movie Joe Dirt that hits home, literally; "home is where you make it." Its not about where your ancestors hail, but rather what place holds the most personal significance and the reasons behind it. It seems that American culture is all about finding your own center of rootedness for one's own personal reasons. Is that more significant than holding true to ancestral ties? Perhaps the answer to that question is insignificant. The more important question in this intro seems to be "what does your rootedness mean to you?"
Henry Miller: "Our destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things."
I am left with many questions though, primarily centered around the difference between sacred and spiritual. Is there a difference? How big is the step from 'significant' to 'sacred'?
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