Sacred Ground

Grizzly · Sep 12, 2011

A topic I've been wrestling with for a very long time, and brought to mind again obviously by discussions of 9/11. 
 
A few years back (gosh, 15!) we went on our first trip into the Rockies with a friend who is, to put it charitably, a bit fixated on things new age. She was on and on about spaces that had positive energy, and mixed metaphors by speaking of sacred space.
 
While I agreed that there are places we humans have deemed special, I think if we are to talk about "sacred" spaces, it's all sacred. It's we humans who attach special meaning.
 
It's easy when I'm hiking a mountain trail to think spiritual thoughts, to be invigorated, what have you. It's easy when I'm walking by something immense like the ocean or across the bald-assed prairie underneath the unrelenting sky to think of things that are beyond me, but to say that these places are somehow exta-ordinarily special is something that doesn't quite sit right with me.
 
I might agree that Iceline Trail is one of the most beautiful spots in all of creation, but does that imbue it with fairy dust? 
 
That said, places like Auschwitz, OK City, Pearl Harbour, Hiroshima and Nagasaki where unspeakable horror occurred - they too are called sacred ground. I don't think that there's anything more sacred about the place, but I do agree that we need to make them places of remembrance, to honour in a sense of mixed awe, horror, mourning and hope the events and the people who perished there. 
 
That's what makes talk of "Ground Zero" being sacred space so mystifying to me. You wouldn't see an office building rise in the midst of Auschwitz, but there in the midst of what is a burial ground is a business tower. On the corner people hawking 9/11 souvenirs, around the block are strip clubs. And yet people claim that it is "hallowed ground" I think the whole place should have been a memorial site... but that's just me I guess. 
 
I think people use the term "sacred space" and mean whatever they want to mean. 
 
Moses apparently was told by God in the form of a burning bush that he had to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. I don't think point of that tale was that the particular spot was meant to be holy - just that he was in a space that had been made sacred. I don't think that the Rockies are any more sacred than the slums of Cairo, but I do think that there are some places where we do have to tread in bare feet.

RaisingArizonainNH · Sep 12, 2011

I think the difference with "Ground Zero" is that it was the location of a thriving marketplace. The intention was to hit us hard and knock us down. I suspect the terrorists would have preferred to keep us down. By installing a memorial- and a new building as well we accomplish both remembering/honoring the dead AND rising back out of the ashes to make it a place of business and enterprise again. That is the salute to life.
 
As for souvenirs stands and such - awful- but that is the other side of human nature - there will always be those who profit off others misery.- not right but according to free will it is a choice.

GaReb770 · Sep 13, 2011

In the case of Moses and the burning bush he was standing on holy ground because he was in the presence of God. Without the presence of God, where he was standing was no more holy than anywhere else. That is not to say there are not places where one feels it necessary to tread in bare feet for various reasons. 

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by Grizzly <a href="/t/75155/sacred-ground#post_2012983"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border-bottom:0px solid;border-left:0px solid;border-top:0px solid;border-right:0px solid;"></a> Moses apparently was told by God in the form of a burning bush that he had to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. I don't think point of that tale was that the particular spot was meant to be holy - just that he was in a space that had been made sacred. I don't think that the Rockies are any more sacred than the slums of Cairo, but I do think that there are some places where we do have to tread in bare feet. 
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4boysmom · Sep 13, 2011

Agreed that with Moses, the ground was sacred because of the presence of God.
 
A couple of thoughts on other places being "sacred"
 
* I was abused by a teacher when I was in jr high. Every time I drove by the school, I was reminded of what had happened there. Recently, the school was torn down. I drove by while they were in the process of tearing it down. His office and the hallway were gone. That brought some release. Just this past weekend, I drove by again. The whole building is gone and they are starting to build the new building. That chapter of my life is gone. Closed. Never to be haunted again. I never have to fear the sound of that door closing again. Sacred ground? Not so much. Just a place where very bad things had happened.
 
* Son1 and I ride a route to Grandma's all the time. A couple years ago we rode up to Grandma's over Thanksgiving weekend. We still don't know why we did it, but we opted to ride Fri/Sat, even though that gave us two days of headwinds, where had we done Sat/Sun we would only have had one day of headwinds. Sunday afternoon a neighbor came over to inform us that the neighbor boy and his girlfriend had been killed in a one car accident. Where? On the road that son1 and I had ridden. We were there at 3pm, the accident was at 11pm. Had we done Sat/Sun, we would have ridden after the accident. I can't imagine riding there so soon. It was months before I was able to ride that route again. Scared ground? No. Very sad that two kids had died there. Now, as I ride there, I pray for the families.

airehead · Sep 13, 2011

Odd, but driving across America there have been places that actually seem to be alive. The wilds of Alaska and the deserts of the Southwest are two places that come to mind.
 
Sacred? To some, yes.

RandMart · Sep 13, 2011

[shame I can't find this on YouTube]
 
Comic David Steinberg: "Moses saw a bush that was burning, yet it would not consume itself. A voice came out. 'Moses, take off your shoes from off of your feet,' God said in his redundant way, 'for the land that you are standing upon is holy land.' Moses takes his shoes off of his feet and approaches the burning bush—and burns his feet. God goes 'Ah-ha! Third one today!'"

yar · Sep 13, 2011

The house I grew up in is gone - probably a tear-down after a fire. Were I to go back to Honore St, I imagine this would be pretty sacred ground for me - though I wouldn't take my shoes off - not in that neighborhood.
 
yar

Grizzly · Sep 14, 2011

Just saw the memorial site. Guy who designed it said that he wanted a physical representation of a moment of silence. I think that he achieved that. Still...

Sacred Ground

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