Natalie Gilbert: Outside Reading

Recently in class we discussed chapter eight in Lane’s Landscapes of the Sacred. This chapter outlines and discusses the ephemeral character of place. The term ephemeral represents ideas such as uncertainty, change, and a sense of temporary. These characteristics make it a hard concept to study.
On page 217 Lane writes, “A special experience that one has at a place perceived to be sacred usually proves to be unrepeatable. Going back to the site never guarantees one’s being able to return to the experience.” Through discussion, Professor Redick told us that on his several trips to the Grand Canon, he always searches for the spot where he stood on his first visit with his friend John. Even though geographical he knows it is there and exits, he can never seem to find it. Is it the environment changing over the years that makes the place appear different? Is it the people that exist in that place and time that makes the place different?
As I thought about ephemeral nature the example of Stephanie Meyer’s book New Moon came to mind. Meyers is the author of the very popular Twilight book series. In New Moon, Bella, one the main characters constantly hikes through the woods to find the place her previous lover, Edward, and her use to go. It was a special place, ritually made sacred through the memories they shared together. While he has deserted her in Forks, the town she resides, she believes that by revisiting the meadow they use to go to then she will in someway be with him again. One day Bella finally finds the meadow, but it isn’t at all the same. Where flora and greenery that once filled the meadow have now turned brown and lack vegetation. The environment of place changed completely physically and emotionally. She neither saw nor felt the same as she did previously in this place as she did with Edward. While she had the misconception that the idea of revisiting place would reconnect her to Edward and prior feelings, the site itself lacks the ability to retrieve the memories people have in them.