Sacred Communication/Journey 2021

An important distinction when comparing pilgrims and tourists is how much control each party has over the situations they enter. Tourists are often in control of the situations they find themselves in, while pilgrims have a more “go with the flow” attitude. A tourist will know where they are staying for the night, what they are eating, and by what means they will travel. Tourists derive meaning from the experience of interacting with the marketplace. On the other hand, pilgrims may not know how they will go through the pilgrimage. A pilgrim may derive meaning from the selfless acts of another.

 When comparing the Camino de Santiago and the Appalachian Trail, an undercooked difference is the hiker's type of interaction. As explained in the text, the Camino is more of a human and human interaction, and the Appalachian Trail is more of a human and environment interaction. I believe that this difference is wilderness. While on the Appalachian Trail, the hiker is really in nature. Though there will be human and human interactions on the Appalachian Trail, the disconnection of the hiker and civilization is more profound than on the Camino. The Camino and the Appalachian Trail have a cultural appeal that allures people to embark on these hikes; there is a stronger cultural connection with the Camino. As culture is people and civilization, it is distanced from the wilderness.

Lane talks about how people need to learn to see with their eyes to interact with God. While part of this “seeing” does involve the action of looking, it also requires opening up to interpretation and accepting the deeper meaning objects may have. Though Lane uses the example of a mountain to explain how humans can view ordinary objects as sacred objects, I found that communion wafers were an example that was easier to comprehend. On their own, communion wafers are just simple pieces of bread. However, from a Christian point of view, the bread becomes the body of Christ. Whether it’s a mountain or a wafer, mundane objects derive new meaning when viewed from a different perspective. From a Christian’s point of view, many simple things are granted greater purpose because of Christ.

 I live in an area where you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains from just about anywhere. I have lived in this area for all my 18 years on earth and have become accustomed to these mountains always being there. It was not until I headed off to college that I have been away from where I grew up for a prolonged period of time. When I eventually headed back home, about two months into the semester, I finally realized how imposing the mountains were. As things become normal, “special” things lose their significance. Though I understand that concept, I never really considered times where it could apply to me. It was not until I had a discussion with a friend from Seattle about Mount Rainier that I realized how the concept applied to me. While talking about viewing Mount Rainier as more than just an object off in the distance, I realized that this was how I viewed the Blue Ridge Mountains. I have always considered these mountains as objects off in the distance and not as monolithic landsca...

      In the section of Attention and Responsibility, something that stuck with me over anything else was this. "What we say in a prayer matters less than how we say it."  This was a great statement and shows that prayer has a deeper meaning to it than just asking God for things.  Also the sentence, "prayer inspires and animates a moral response to the world," had a positive tone to it that I liked.  People tend to forget that prayer is more than just asking a greater being for whatever is desired and this chapter served a great purpose to show that.

      In the beginning of this reading, it mentions about how a boy view someone using a form of prayer to reach out to God.  Then after being told that the person is doing so in order to ask God for something, he starts to pray about getting Gelato.  This was funny to me because I can relate to this experience.  I remember as a young kid going to church on Sundays and seeing people pray and had no clue what they were doing.  It was not until my parents and Sunday school taught me about prayer that I realized what it was.  The night I learned about it I prayed to God for probably about 30 minutes, however, I do not remember exactly what I was asking for but I just remember praying for a very long time.  So it was just interesting to relate to something at the beginning of the novel.