Landscapes of the Sacred by Belden C. Lane begins with “above all else, sacred space is ‘storied place’” (Lane, 15). This means that a place becomes sacred from the stories told about it. Stories are told over and over and eventually from this repetition, they become truth. After reading this I couldn’t help but think of the holidays. Every year when families get together they always seem to tell the same stories, over and over again. Each time they may change slightly, but the heart of the story is always the same. Everyone can relate to this phenomenon. Eventually, these stories become a ritualistic part of the family get-togethers. The most interesting part is that the stories begin to take shape and almost develop their own character. So Lane says that sacred space is storied place. So often we think of place as being a geographical or physical location, but I’d like to think place can be a mental state as well. And when those old timers get to their story telling, something significant and special happens. So does that mean these simple, repetitive stories that come to be so special, are really examples of sacred place? I would like to think so.
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