Existential loneliness and a sense that one’s life is inconsequential, both of which are hallmarks of
modern civilizations, seem to me to derive in part from our abandoning a belief in the therapeutic
dimensions of a relationship with place. A continually refreshed sense of the unplumbable complexity
of patterns in the natural world, patterns that are ever present and discernible, and
which incorporate the observer, undermine the feeling that one is alone
in the world, or meaningless in it. The effort to know a place deeply
is, ultimately, an expression of the human desire to belong, to fit
somewhere.
The determination to know a particular place, in my experience, is consistently rewarded. And every natural place, to my mind, is open to being known. And somewhere in this process a person begins to sense that they are becoming known, so that when they are absent from that place they know that place misses them. And this reciprocity, to know and be known, reinforces a sense that one is necessary in the world.
The determination to know a particular place, in my experience, is consistently rewarded. And every natural place, to my mind, is open to being known. And somewhere in this process a person begins to sense that they are becoming known, so that when they are absent from that place they know that place misses them. And this reciprocity, to know and be known, reinforces a sense that one is necessary in the world.
Barry Lopez
(1945 - 2020)
1 comment:
This is beautiful and so profound!
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