Entry tags:

graffiti, the urban naturalist

4. Sacred Places

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Even the most hardened and unromantic rationalist knows what a sacred place should be. It is usually a place with some historical significance. It may be a great building, a monument, or a patch of unmarked land whose power and history is passed on through stories or religious practice. It is not a place one would merely pass through, rather, it is the destination. Most of the time, it is a public place. It may have rules, spoken and unspoken, that help us to feel the energy of the place. It may call for quiet, a tribute in candles, or a splash of graffiti.

It is comforting to see a monument ringed in flowers, small stones resting near a grave, throngs of people gathering at a church, or silent individuals studying under the green lamps of a library. The city dweller may find a sacred place on every street corner if she wishes-- or nowhere at all.

Sunday mornings on Fulton St. one may hear the sweet voice of a woman who sings the gospel. Her voice carries through the narrow streets of the financial district in the crisp air of dawn. Her songs echo down Wall Street. She has made the canyons of the city in to her cathedral and she found a sacred place there.

In the summer months youths collect beneath the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn bridge. They hold skate boarding contests following a code of conduct that prohibits loud shouts or cheers. Instead a simple spoken "nice" or "sweet" congratulates the athletic accomplishments of the skate boarders as the sound of their boards on the bricks and the hard smack of airborne wheels meeting the pavement form another kind of music. They have also found a sacred place.

On New Years Eve millions of people focus their attention on Times Square. They countdown in unison. Crowds of people struggle for a glimpse of the ball that drops. All of them are in contact with a kind of sacred place. Here is where time begins, here is the beacon, the city naming the pules of an entire civilization.

On the piers of the old fish market you may find small groupings of people moving with the slow motions of tai-chi. They face the east river beholding the two great bridges as reverently as any monk ever looked upon a misty mountain. Feel free to join them in their ceremony.

In sharing spaces and making them sacred we connect or personal inner life with the lives of others. Through the city we have the opportunity to connect with something larger than ourselves by recognizing the sacred quality of places.

Last: 3. The Living History of a City
Next: 5. Living Sacred Places

From: The Urban Naturalist.