Olivia Strittmatter - Landscapes of the Sacred

 Blog Post 9 - Landscapes of the Sacred


This post is going to be about chapter eight of Landscapes of the Sacred. In this chapter Belden Lane writes about placelessness in American culture. 


One main part that really stood out to me was that he mentioned that Americans are fascinated by space, but they don’t tend to stay in one place their whole lives. He mentions that by staying in the same place your whole life, people tend to view you as unmotivated, unambitious, and unadventurous, which are traits that Americans tend to frown on. He mentions that it’s because Americans value this placelessness, and view it as an important American trait. 


I found this point particularly interesting because it reminds me of my family, and how we are actually able to see this. Both of my parents moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia after college, before they met each other. I have over 50 immediate cousins, and they live all over the US. When I was younger I thought that adults were supposed to move away from their parents, to a new state to create their own independent lives. I always thought it was so weird when people would go to the same elementary school as their cousins, or in the same neighborhood as their aunts and uncles, or even going to visit their grandparents on weekends. I have friends in Norway and in the Netherlands, and they all live in the same city that their grandparents grew up in. It really just shows not only the cultural differences, but the differences in the value of space and freedom.


I do think that this placelessness Americans value is partially a problem though. A lot of people feel as if they don’t belong anywhere, or that they’re just bouncing around from place to place, not really ever settling. It also means that we are lacking a lot of sacred or holy places, because people don’t tend to stick around a specific place for long enough for the sacred to reveal itself in the same type of way it did in Europe. Overall I think that the nomadic lifestyle Americans tend to live is a fascinating one, but not one that comes without problems.

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