Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Landscapes of the Sacred #3: Adin Katz



In this final Journal on the landscapes of the sacred I would like to take a moment to talk about the difference between space and place in America.  The idea struck me as incredibly interesting, place being the refuge from the awful and scary space; The unknown vs. the understood, the contained vs. the wild.  As I understand the concept place is something created by humans that makes sense it has boundaries, you are aware when you are in it because it is safe and in a way walled in.  space on the other hand in wild and free.  It is entirely boundless, the frontier waiting for someone brave enough to enter and settle it.  People use place to escape space, people seem by the definitions of these two concepts to only want to spend a certain amount of time out in space.  Space provides temporarily relief from the everyday hustle and bustle.  However, people want to return before too long to the place that they know and understand because there are no unknown fears, nothing that we do not know about.  I think that people are certainly more afraid of things that they do not understand or when they are unaware of what might happen.  In place there may be harm that can be caused but they are all things that people are well versed in, space on the other hand is anything but well known.  It really makes you realize the bravery of pioneer and frontiersmen  no matter what the field of study or work is, pushing boundary of place into space could possibly be one of the most dangerous activities to be taken up.  

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