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Why Life is Sacred and What that Even Means

Google says sacred means:

• Connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration.
• Religious rather than secular.
• Of writing or text, embodying the laws or doctrines of a religion.

Wrong. That’s not even right! We totally don’t know what the word even means anymore. Sacred is not just a synonym for religious .

Wikipedia’s Sacred page starts with: “Sacred means revered due to sanctity and is generally the state of being perceived by religious individuals as associated with divinity and considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspiring awe or reverence among believers. Objects are often considered sacred if used for spiritual purposes, such as the worship or service of gods.”

Wrong again. “ Sacred means revered due to sanctity ”? That’s a circular definition! At best, Wikipedia makes it sound irrelevant to everyday life. But nothing could be more relevant to life than an understanding, at the heart level, of this word.

Yes, both Google and Wikipedia capture the way the word is often used, but that’s not what it means . It is used in these ways because of what it means. So let’s find out what it really means.

Merriam-Webster reaches back a little further than the birth of the Internet. While listing similar definitions to Google and Wikipedia, Merriam-Webster also says this, which is the real definition of sacred :

• Entitled to reverence and respect
• Highly valued and important

Sacred is often used for religious meanings because we traditionally have considered God, and the things of God, worthy of respect and highly important. But sacred really means entitled to and worthy of reverence and respect, highly valued and important. Irreplaceable. Something you don’t mess with.

That’s your life. That’s my life. That’s our lives. That’s all human life. Human life is sacred, not to be messed with, because we’re created in the very image of God (Genesis 1:27). None of the animals were, only people. We alone are this unique blend of physical and spiritual life.

Human life is sacred. You don’t mess with it. When we forget this truth, or ignore it, we make devastating consequences for ourselves. We deal ourselves a huge loss.

During her American visit in the ‘90s, when Bill Clinton was president, Mother Teresa was asked by Hillary Clinton, “Why haven’t we had a women president yet?” Mother Teresa didn’t even blink, “She was probably aborted.” HRC was not amused.

Every life has a tree of life attached to it. Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. And that’s just heredity. Think about impact. We all touch thousands of lives. That touch matters, for good or ill. Those lives will never be the same.

Who’s inspired you? Who has pulled you back from the brink? A parent? A teacher? A coach? An author? A friend? Where would you be if that life never existed?

It’s a Wonderful Life , the black ‘n’ white movie with Jimmy Stewart, is more than just a drippy Christmas movie. It’s an amazing example of this concept. You know the story. George Bailey, at the height of his despair over his own failed life, gets the tremendous gift of seeing what the world would be like without him . Turns out he’s not a failure after all. His life held back tremendous evil in his town, hugely affecting everyone in ways they would never know. Hundreds of men would’ve died on the other side of the world during WWII, because his medal-of-honor war hero brother wasn’t there to save them, because George wasn’t there to save him when he fell through the ice when they were children. Every life matters.

Life is sacred. You don’t mess with it.

The worst of humanity comes out when we lose sight of this truth. The Nazis. ISIS. North Korea. Stalin’s purges in the old Soviet Union. Abortion.

We’ve lost over 60 million lives due to abortion in America alone (which is a small number compared to the rest of the world). To put it in perspective, the Holocaust was 18 million. Our numbers are 3 times that, and counting.

If you count not just the deaths, but the devastation left in abortion’s wake , it’s at least 180 million. Because there’s a mother whose maternal nurturing identity was devastated with the death of her child. There’s a father whose paternal provider/protector identity was cut to the heart, replaced by a false identity of failure . And we haven’t counted grandparents or siblings yet, who also lost a family member.

The lie in the culture is about quality of life over sanctity of life. Do any of these lies sound familiar?

“It was for the best, she’s got three kids on welfare already.” It doesn’t matter how poor the mother is. Do we really believe only rich people deserve to live? I thought money couldn’t buy happiness?

“The ultrasound and amniocentesis show the baby has Down’s syndrome. You should abort.” Have you ever known a child with Down’s syndrome? I have. These precious children bless the lives of everyone who meets them. Yet some countries have aborted almost every one of them, to their great loss. The eugenicists of the ‘20s would be so proud. God forgive us and lead us to repent.

“She had her whole life ahead of her. She had to abort. Now she can go to college and her life can get back to normal.” Had to abort? That doesn’t sound like a choice. The truth is, her life will never get back to “normal,” whatever that means. Once she’s pregnant, she’s a mother. She can either be a mother who has a child, or a mother who lost one. But she will never again not be a mother .

All of these common excuses for abortion reflect quality of life, not sanctity of life. Life is sacred. You don’t mess with it.

If one life , especially the most vulnerable—the unborn who have no voice of their own to stand up for themselves— is not valued, then no one’s life is safe .

The culture of death does not stop with abortion. It starts there. Here’s the slippery slope:

• Assisted suicide
• Euthanasia for the comatose
• Euthanasia for the elderly
• Euthanasia for the disabled
• Euthanasia for the “undesirables”
• The Final Solution

Sound familiar? Have you seen this movie? Haven’t we already had this nightmare? How many times do we have to stumble blindly down this road?

Let’s not let history repeat itself again. We can stop this.

Speak up for life. Support your local crisis pregnancy center. Help an unwed mother. Be the change we want to see. God will always strengthen us for this and answer that prayer. Perhaps we were born for such a time as this.

If you have had an abortion, or fathered an aborted child, get healing. Jesus loves you and has so much healing for you , but you can’t walk through it yourself. You need help, and it’s so available, just waiting for you. Here are some resources to help you find a Christ-centered, post-abortive recovery program in your area. And if you can’t find one, email us. We’ll walk through it with you.

http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/weekend/sites.aspx

http://hopeafterabortion.com

https://optionline.org/after-abortion-support

http://afterabortion.org/help-healing

https://www.healingafterabortion.org/mission–vision-statement.html

So who’s made a significant impact in your life? Where would you be if that person wasn’t there? Tell us in the comments. And please share on social media if you think this post would bless someone els

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Thank you. My mother try to abort me 47 yrs ago but God had a plan for me because I am Moses of my family to witness Christ to them. My mum passed away this year September but she knew Christ before she went home to be with the Lord 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

Abeni, You have a powerful story. Thank you so much for your comment, and for sharing a little of your story with us. We are honored to be on this journey with you.

Such an important post! Words that need to be said, listened to, and lived out Moment be Moment.

Thank you Ginger! Great to hear from you.

God killed billions so far and he will kill billions more before he’s through. If life is sacred than God is the biggest sinner in the universe. Human race is at war with God and they’re losing badly you want to take their side? I like to be right so I side with God.

Dmitry, yes the human race is at war against God, but God is not at war against us. People die as a result of our rebellion against God, not because God wanted it that way. Human life is sacred to God. God created people. God loves people. He made a way for all people to live with him in Heaven forever and ever, through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection. It sounds like people have hurt you. I’m sorry for your pain. What’s your story? What are you doing to “side with God”?

Thought provoking essay; shedding the spotlight on the sanctity of human life. Thanks for the reminder of the severity of abortion in a society where we argue the issue.

Thank you, Charlene! I can’t think of anything I’d rather hear a reader say than, “thought provoking.” It’s such an important issue.

Wonderful post, blessings

Thank you, Yvette! Blessings received. Blessings on you and your ministry also.

Dave, so well written and spot-on. I would love to see it shared everywhere. May God open doors.

Thank you Gloria! Please share on social media and help us get this message out.

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Blog “life is sacred”: what that means, and why it matters in a post-dobbs world, “life is sacred”: what that means, and why it matters in a post-dobbs world.

That is true, but only in the strictest sense. The Bible never once uses the word abortion , nor does it refer to the practice of abortion as we know it. But it’s not true that the Bible has nothing to say that’s relevant to the devastating decision to terminate a pregnancy. Scripture teaches clearly that all human life is sacred to and protected by God and that He knows us even before He forms us in the womb. Society thus has a responsibility to guard human life—at all of its stages—from those who would seek to harm it.

Of course, the topic of abortion is—to state the obvious—a controversial one that’s fraught with stories of abandonment, pain, shame, regret, fear, and grief. But there are also stories of hope, reconciliation, love, forgiveness, and hope. In the wake of Dobbs , much remains uncertain, including how believers can best rise up to support new life, new mothers, new fathers, and the communities in which they live. The challenge before us is immense.

Even so, above all other helpful and productive facts and arguments about abortion, believers must remember, cling to, and unapologetically live out these helpful words from the Westminster Confession: “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture” (1.6). The Confession then goes on to remind us that God’s Word is “the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion”—including views on abortion—“are to be determined” (1.10). Because the Bible is God’s Word to us and therefore the greatest guide for true, God-honoring human flourishing, it is crucial for us to understand what the Scriptures have to say about life in the womb and how that challenges and convicts the cultural assumptions that have made abortion prevalent in our day.

What the Bible Says about Abortion

As the Confession points out, we know some things are right or wrong not because the Bible says so simply and explicitly but because the Bible’s clearest truths often have further implications. There is no single text we can go to if we want to say that abortion is a moral evil. Instead, we need to understand two important principles that the Bible clearly teaches: first, that life is sacred, and second, that children in the womb are alive.

Life Is Sacred

To begin with, the clear and unashamed testimony of Scripture is that human life is sacred and that God therefore protects it.

Life is sacred first because it is God’s gift. Genesis 2:7 tells us that “the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature.” While the story may leave us with questions about the scientific background of man’s origins, those questions seemingly were not God’s focus in Genesis. Instead, the Bible simply, historically, and unequivocally states that God made humankind, and He alone gave them life.

Moreover, life is also sacred because human beings were made in God’s image: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Human beings, in other words, are more than superior animals. They are not merely souped-up apes. Humanity is distinct from every other part of the created order in that we have uniquely ever-living spirits and are fashioned in the likeness of our Creator. As the psalmist testifies to God, “You have made [man] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:5).

Because of these realities, human life is precious, and God takes special measures to protect it. In the account of Noah’s flood, for instance, we learn that the reason God brought judgment on the earth was that “the earth was filled with violence … for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (Gen. 6:11–12). When Noah leaves the ark, God thus commands a judgment for anyone who would take a life: “From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Gen. 9:5–6). Because murder is a violation of God’s image and of the intrinsic value that it gives to a human person, God seeks to protect His very image in human beings

Yet God does not leave the burden of protecting life for us to carry as individuals alone. In addition, He has entrusted the responsibility of guarding life to civic and national authorities. As Paul explains, “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. … He is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:1, 4). God will hold governmental authorities accountable for how they use, or abuse, the power He gives them—and chief among their duties is to protect the life of the innocent, because human life is sacred. For this reason at least, Christians should hope and pray for their governments to fulfill their God-given responsibility, advocating for it to do so by whatever righteous means are available to them.

Children in the Womb Are Human Lives

Most pro-choice advocates will agree in broad strokes that human life is sacred and should be protected. Where they disagree is over when exactly a child in the womb becomes a human life. On this the Bible is also clear: unborn children are human lives made in God’s image from the very beginning of their existence—that is, from conception.

The image of God is not a faculty that babies gain at a certain point in fetal development; it is stamped onto their nature as human beings. Worldly philosophies would have us believe that it is what we can think, feel, and do that makes us human. But the Bible nowhere teaches that our God-imaging humanness depends on these things. In fact, it testifies to the value of human beings even before they are born.

In the Psalms, David testifies of and to God, “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb,” and describes “being made in secret, intricately woven” (Ps. 139:13, 15). His development in utero, in other words, was an act of God’s creation, just as when God formed man and woman in his image in the garden of Eden. The Creator does not step in at a certain point in the process; He is every infant’s Maker from the beginning, and they are made in His image. Similarly, to the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jer. 1:5), testifying again that He is the creator even of prenatal life and that it is sacred to Him—even before conception.

The image of God is not a faculty that babies gain at a certain point in fetal development; it is stamped onto their nature as human beings.

The Bible also testifies to the vitality of children in the womb. Genesis 25:22 talks about the prenatal wrestling of Jacob and Esau. Luke 1:39–45 , too, tells a story about how John the Baptist “leaped for joy” in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice. While this event was part of a miraculous story, such activity itself is no miracle. Any woman who has been pregnant can tell you from experience that the child, though unseen, is alive and active. And in fact, the Bible uses the same word for a baby in the womb as it does for one out of the womb. Its writers saw them as the same thing. Meanwhile, negatively, when Job wishes he’d died at birth ( Job 3:11 ), he implies that he was already alive in the womb.

In short, a serious reading of the Bible has to reckon with the fact that God counts all human life sacred, that God recognizes the unborn as human lives, and that God commands the protection of human life—including that of the unborn—because it is made in His image. Against the materialism of our age, Christians must recognize that an unborn baby is more than a clump of cells. Against the existentialism and expressive individualism of our age, Christians must recognize that it is not what a baby can think, feel, or do that makes it human. The unborn are human by nature, and they are therefore sacred. Above any right that anyone has, we must prioritize the duty to protect and to care for life, from beginning to end.

What Our Culture Believes about Abortion

If you pay attention to the abortion debate in our culture, you will quickly note that both factions claim to have the moral high ground. One side prioritizes the protection of innocent life in the womb; the other claims to have the interest of mothers in mind, protecting them from the risks of unwanted pregnancy, the life-changing demands of parenthood, and the potential of subjugation to patterns of abuse.

We would do well to remember that behind this conflict of right and wrong, not many are driven by some search for and understanding of a biblical prooftext that says “Abortion is bad” or “Abortion is good.” Beneath the slogans, the rallies, and the countless social media posts lies a tangled web of ideas, the majority of which are almost completely detached from the belief that the Bible ought to guide every aspect of our lives.

Today’s Prevailing Worldview

The roots of the pro-choice approach can be traced back centuries, through the Romantic period, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, and beyond. Over decades and centuries, the musings of philosophers and academics have trickled down into the thinking and assumptions of the masses, who may not even have realized that they had begun to think differently than earlier generations had.

Fast-forward to today, and we in the West live in a time of what some philosophers have called expressive individualism . How people feel about themselves has become the defining factor of their identity and one of the most important factors in moral reasoning. To be human, they say, is to be a thinking and feeling creature—and so even choices about life and death, notes theologian and historian Carl R. Trueman, can default to “that which gives the most happiness to the persons involved.” He writes, “If we are above all what we think, what we feel, what we desire, then anything that interferes or obstructs those thoughts, feelings, or desires, inhibits us as people and prevents us from being the self that we are convinced that we are.” 1 Expressive individualism has taught people to find their identity in their subjective experience of life and to see threats to that experience as threats to themselves.

Its Effect on Moral Reasoning

In this context, the desires of pregnant mothers have become more salient to many people than the lives of unborn children, which don’t appear to them to have thoughts, feelings, or desires at all. As long as people believe that who they are is primarily what they think and feel—that these things make them a person and give them a purpose—then they will be ready to say that the choice of a pregnant mother is more important than the supposed life of an apparently unthinking, unfeeling, less significant fetus.

If we would glorify God, we cannot set our desire for happiness above our responsibility to protect innocent life that is also made in His image.

It’s not that many people would say that an unborn child has no value, nor that they don’t care about human life. Pro-choice advocates generally believe that they are doing the morally right thing. But one of the most sinister features of sin is that it corrupts human hearts to believe that right is wrong and wrong is right, so that we “call evil good and good evil” (Isa. 5:20). Because they live in a culture where greater value is placed on human experience than on any intrinsic value, pro-choice people are more ready to side with the choice of the mother than the life of the child, which they may not even recognize as life. They end their fight for true equality at the womb, and they think it is good and right to do so.

God cares deeply about mothers and about their happiness, their health, and their communities. He wants people to feel purpose in their life. But these are not the things that define the good life. Against these modern ways of thinking, the Bible calls us to understand that we are spiritual beings made in the image of the creator God, that we were made by that God for the purpose of glorifying Him, and that if we would glorify Him, we cannot set our desire for happiness above our responsibility to protect innocent life that is also made in His image.

What the Bible Says to Our Culture

Despite its widespread acceptance, abortion remains one of the clearest evidences in our society that mankind is grievously out of sync with God’s plan for its flourishing. What God has called sacred it has called vulgar. What God has called life it has called something less than. It has rejected the truth that human nature is defined by God’s image, and it has embraced the lie that each person defines himself or herself—that we are all gods unto ourselves.

So what are we, as Christians living amid a world plagued by such confusion and corruption, ever to do?

Whatever the right answers to that question are (and there are many), they must begin where all right answers begin: in the Gospel itself. Jesus Christ, the God-man, has revealed the Creator to us so that we may come to believe in Him. That same Jesus shed His blood to cleanse us from our every sin—even abortion. So at the very least, we ought net let the devil come around and rattle our cage, causing us to fear that those we know and love are out of God’s reach or to dwell again on past sins that have been forgiven.

It is God who defines us—and God forgives. Thus, we also need to shine out as lights. We need to go and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, for His grace is sufficient for every care. He can open blind eyes to the sacredness of human life, and He can forgive those who have taken it. We must seek to protect unborn life by every righteous means, and we must be ready to show mercy to others just as we have received it from Him. And as we do, we must also be ready to serve and love those mothers who have chosen the sacredness of life even at great cost to themselves. In doing so, we serve Christ, by whose love alone we are able to “take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Tim. 6:19).

This article was adapted from the sermon “Sanctity of Human Life” by Alistair Begg.

• Carl R. Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), chap. 8. ↩︎

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Sophie Ahava; Nicholas Buccella; and Olivia Mason-Lucas

A space by itself is not inherently sacred. Individual beliefs enhance the feelings and actions that occur within places, making some spaces more sacred than others. People develop certain feelings about spaces that are not always universal; these can be individually tailored sentiments that are ever-changing and differ between people and their beliefs. “The Power of Human Experience Within Sacred Space” chapter with explore how sacred space involves both emotional and physical attachment and. Without these elements, anything could be seen as sacred to anyone, which ultimately means nothing would be sacred.

The personal experience is a critical component of religious expression and serves to make space sacred. Ritual performances, evoked emotion, and the physical body act as mediums and allow space to be perceived as sacred. “A Building is Just A Building,” written by Sophie Ahava, will focus on how the actions, feelings, and performance within spaces contribute to its sacredness. Through the way people dress and move their bodies in religious spaces, to prayers said, to the feelings that are evoked, and the rituals performed, all of these factors help to form sacred space and differ among the individual as well as the religion.

The lives of humans are characterized by nonverbal interactions with living things and inanimate objects. Manufactured environments within sacred spaces are constructed with the purpose of influencing the behavior of those within it, thus resulting in performative actions. While these are influenced by personal experiences, religion and the environment, each individual will experience and attach meaning to spaces differently. “Sacred Space As a Stage,” written by Olivia Mason-Lucas, explores the boundaries between space, personal experience, and design. The intersection of these concepts accounts for the similar and differing interpretations of sacred space as they present themselves within the context of faith-based and secular societies.

The use, influence, power, and placement of sacred space have been consistent elements of religion and communities throughout time. The human experience and interaction with sacred space has always been an observable trait of mortal history. There is a mutual exchange between sacred spaces and the humans that inhabit them. The research in “The Influence and Power of Sacred Space,” written by Nicholas Buccella, delves into the interactions and powers of space and what makes it sacred, realizing that not only religious spaces that can be seen as sacred. The ways in which humans interact with space in recent history and what this lends to modern experiences with spaces are integral points to raise when looking at the sacredness of space.

Religious expression culminates within sacred space, which legitimizes the meaning assigned as it pertains to individuals and groups and thus differs among them. Behaviors in spaces that are not seen as sacred provoke feelings that are just associated to the surrounding elements. However, when religion is introduced, the performance manifests as a ritual based on norms, whether societal or spiritual and creates a supernatural element beyond everyday routines. Sacralization of space can be achieved in many aspects and differs among the individual and this chapter will explore the elements that help define sacred space. Actions that are carried out, emotions evoked, architectural designs, geography, and personal experience all combine to make a space sacred.

A Building is Just a Building

By sophie ahava.

Sacred space encompasses religions all over the world. However, attention seems to always be focused on the physical buildings and places themselves rather than what happens within those spaces. A building is just a structure; what happens within certain spaces is what can determine its sacredness. The personal experience is a critical component of religious expression and serves to make space sacred. The body, mind, and ritual performance all contribute to the sacredness of a space. An individual’s body is what physically enters a space, the mind and soul controls the emotions to one’s feelings about the space, and ritual and performance adds meaning to the space. The body can be presented in different ways that add to the sacredness of space. Sacredness can be explored in many different aspects. Ritualistic actions, community, clothing, movement, power of mind and prayer, and emotions a space evokes for an individual all provide a sense of sacredness that a space alone, lacking these elements, could not provide.

Sacredness can have different meanings for different people. A general definition from Wikipedia states that, “sacred means revered due to sanctity and is generally the state of being perceived by religious individuals as associated with divinity and considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion.” (“Sacred,” 2018). For something to be sacred, it does not necessarily need to be associated with a building. As long as it connects to the divine than that is all something needs. A space can only become sacred if the people in the space believe it to be so. Gillian Rose, a geographer of religion states that, “Places are not only a medium, but also an outcome of action, producing and being produced through human practice” and that sacred space depends on the people that use that space (Rose, 2010). In most religions, sacred space is more about the actions that take forth and who occupies that space rather than the area itself. Roger Stump, author of The Geography of Religion: Faith, Place, and Space, believes, “through [a person’s] experiences of and within sacred space, the believer can fully assimilate the basic motivations, expectations, and emotions associated with living their religion” (Stump, 2008). In other words, religions are about the people more so than the space. Stump continues to say that “the importance of sacred space in a religion’s worldview derives from its role as the setting for various forms of interaction between the human and the superhuman realms” (Stump, 2008). No matter where the space is, social interactions between people who believe in the same ideas of divinity create a sacredness within space. Roy Rappaport wrote Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity and is known for studying the anthropology of ritual. Rappaport contributes by saying, “ sanctity by this account is a property of religious discourse and not of the objects sanctified in or by that discourse” (Rappaport, 2010). Sacred space is determined by the way people carry out the religion, not necessarily the physical objects within a space where the religion is practiced. In Everywhere You Are Is Sacred Space, author Donna Labermeier asks questions regarding if “sacred space is really confined to a particular space that each of us has to go to in order to feel centered and peaceful” (Labermeier, 2014). People can be religious and feel a sense of sacredness before even entering a specific space. That feeling can be translated and brought within a space, intensifying the sacredness. In short, sacred space can be seen in many different ways, but what differentiates an ordinary space from one more sacred is the people in the space and the actions that take forth there.

Ritual performance significantly influences the sacralization of spaces. Lily Kong, an expert geographer of religion, advocates that people “need to discover individuality of personal religious experience as well as the social and material relations pertinent to that experience” (Kong, 1993). Places provide a space for religious communities to congregate and can provoke different emotions, but they are also the space where religious rituals take place which can intensify the sacredness of the space. Rabbi Sara Mason-Barkin teaches that in Judaism, “all of this becomes beautiful when we enter: each of us who is made holy by our daily choices that are inspired by the Torah and the community…a prayer goes forth from each soul” (Mason-Barkin, 2010). The action of prayer that occurs within Jewish synagogues amplifies the sacred feeling of the space, as does the community gathering in which it happens. The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, in Jerusalem is also an example of ritual performance that helps serve to make a space sacred. Not everyone reveres the Wailing Wall as sacred, but for Jews it is one of the holiest, most sacred sites within the religion. People place personal notes that consist of prayers and dreams that they hope God will hear. The Western Wall is a place Jews can go to feel closer to God and the actions that take place there allow this to happen. Other religions have rituals as well that contribute to the sacredness of space. For example, Stump explains how “prayer, baptism, and fasting…all manifest explicit intersections between body, space, and belief” (Stump, 2008). Space can be transformed by the actions that take place there. In the textbook, Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk, many denominations of Christianity, baptism can occur in any body of water, whether it be a religious pool or the open ocean (Hitchcock, 2012). The act of baptism can allow any space to be sacred, no matter where the ceremony takes place, and allows Christians to be close to God and Jesus Christ anywhere this ritual takes place. Hinduism also finds sacredness within water, more specifically the Ganges River. The Ganges River in India is not seen as a universal sacred place, in fact it is severely polluted due to environmental factors; yet this is one of the holiest places for Hindus. According to Stump, “water from the Ganges has the power to heal and purify the living and the river itself represents an important site for cremation and disposal of the dead” (Stump, 2008). The rituals that are performed within the Hindu faith help create the sacredness that is associated with the Ganges. Additionally, there are rituals within Islam that take place at specific places. Mecca, for example, is revered as one of the holiest cities within Islam, but it is seen as an ordinary city to outsiders of the religion. One of the five pillars of Islam consists of the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. Those who take the pilgrimage engage in specific ritual performances that intensify the sacredness associated with the city. Those who take the Pilgrimage engage in the same rituals that Sarah did in ancient biblical times which serves to make the space in which these rituals occur, sacred. In addition, tragedy serves to make space sacred. Certain events can turn an ordinary space into something others find intense meaning in. After September 11, 2001, the area where the Twin Towers in New York City stood is now memorialized and remembered. The space became sacred after being associated with a tragic event. Memorials can cause once ordinary spaces to become sacred due to the events that occurred there. Space is not sacred by association of just being space; the actions and performances that occur in these places serve to make the space sacred.

The physical human body and sense of community are important in many religions and major contributors in what makes space sacred. Stump understands that, “the body provides an essential medium for articulating the religious character of self, through dress, ornamentation, and other aspects of personal experience” (Stump, 2008). In other words, the human body helps serve to make space sacred through individual’s physical beliefs, clothing, and way the body moves within religion. In an essay written by Stephanie Are it is believed that, “incandescent body connects to and with the world and the other, unifying the human and the divine” (Arel, 2014).  An individual is the one who connects directly to the supernatural, and a space can provide that medium, but ultimately the feeling of sacredness comes from within. A sacred place is not going to be sacred to everyone, but it is sacred to those who connect within the space to get closer to the supernatural. The body is revered as sacred in many religions and when a person enters a space, that space can become sacred as well. OB Frothingham, author of The Sacredness of the Body, states that, “religion concerns primarily the body” (Frothingham, 2018). Individuals with the same belief system make up a religious community and the space in which the religious community congregates becomes sacred due to its association with the divinity and beliefs of the religion’s followers. Many religions have a strong emphasis on community gathering and believe sacred space comes from the people that make up a space. In Christianity, it is believed that, “a building with no worshipers cannot really be a church in the biblical sense” (United Church of God, 2011). A church is more about the people that gather in it than the building itself.  Within Islam, “Muslim jurists recognized that human beings are guaranteed universal rights by default…the most important of which is the right to life” (Elias, 2015). One can then infer that the body of an individual is much more sacred than a space itself in Islam. Abu Amina Elias pursues Islamic studies at University of Wales and continues to say, “every human life is sacred in Islam and every person has been granted God-given fundamental and universal rights at birth,” regardless of being Muslim or not (Elias, 2015). Sacred space is useful within religions, but it would not exist unless the people within that religion congregated to continue their worshipping beliefs as a community. Judaism is another religion that generates a focus on community. From the beginnings of the religion, Jews have been forced to move around due to prosecution. Judaism is still prominent today due to its focus on community; for a long time, the people were the temple. In other words, and place could become sacred so long as there was a community of people to gather there. MJL Staff, a Jewish author, explains how “Judaism offers an optimistic view on life, the union of body and soul” and how “The body is a gift from God to be protected and tended” (Staff, 2002). Emphasis on the personal individual that makes up this religion is important to acknowledge because each body is uniquely sacred within Judaism. The physical gathering of people within a specific space creates a sense of sacredness.

Clothing and religious dress influence the sacredness of a place. Clothes can allow an individual to feel closer to their religious practice which in turn makes them feel closer to the higher power in which they are worshipping. In both Islam and Christianity there are religious ceremonies in which an individual wears white. White is worn during the Hajj for followers of Islam and during baptism for Christians (Stump, 2008). The feeling of innocence and purification the white garments represent allow a space in which they are worn to feel special. In Judaism, a head piece called a kippah, or yamaka, is worn within the synagogue “as a sign of respect to God and as a reminder that their worldly existence lies below the greater divine presence” (Stump, 2008). Some sects of Judaism even require men to wear the kippah at all times, no matter the space, implying that no matter where a person is, God is present. This signifies the idea that the person within a space is more important than the space itself because God can be found anywhere. Clothing adds meaning to space and allow certain spaces to be more sacred than others.

Movement within space also contributes to its sacredness. Dancing is a motion that uses one’s body to get closer to the divine. Certain religions like Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, use the individual body to get closer to God through dance. Taoist Tai Chi also emphasizes the movement of body in sacred space. Dr. Caitie Finlayson, a successful geographer and professor at University of Mary Washington, states that “Tai Chi is meant to be flowing, in harmony with nature” (Finlayson, 2012). Participating in Tai Chi can allow one’s body to further connect to the space being occupied, causing it to have this feeling of sacredness. WOE Oesterley, an English theologian, explains “the origin of sacred dance was the desire of early man to imitate what he conceived to be the characteristic of the supernatural powers” (Oesterley, 2016). Since sacred space is associated with the divine, allowing one’s body to engage in dance can permit someone to get close to God anywhere. The idea that an individual’s physical body can be used to get closer to the supernatural serves to make any space sacred.

The mind and soul are focuses within certain religions and allow the space in which the individual occupies to be sacred. Through personal experiences, any space can become sacred. Buddhism is a major religion that directs a lot of its teachings to the individual mind. Tenzin Legtsok, and American monk, argues “that nothing exists inherently or totally independent of other things, from its own side,” therefore space and the individual in that space correlate to one another (Legtsok, 2015). Without individual’s beliefs about a space, an area will just be seen for what it is, plain and simple, with no real emotional attachment. The power of prayer within religions also help to create sacredness within spaces. Labermeier believes “having a close connection to one’s soul, not just one’s physicality” is critical (Labermeier, 2018). Prayer can make one’s mind change about the space someone occupies. In Buddhism, it is understood that “the power of prayer or aspiration is one of many qualities of the wisdom of truth body” and helps to focus the thoughts of individuals within a certain space (Legtsok, 2015). Prayer can be practiced anywhere and it can allow a person to look inward on themselves and practice their religion constantly no matter the location. The worship and prayer that exists within religious buildings helps to intensify the sacredness of those spaces in the sense that prayer brings individuals closer to divinity. Tai Chi along with Yoga are also religiously focused on the mind and soul within spaces. In Finlayson’s Spaces of Faith article, she talks about how there is a spatial context within which emotional and religious experiences occurs and that affective experiences are a critical faucet of lived religious experience (Finlayson, 2012). People’s individual emotion and perceptions of spaces is what makes that space sacred. The gardens within the Tai Chi religion cause people to feel like they are in a sacred place, outside of reality. People elicit different emotions within different spaces and that is going to change based on religion and individual beliefs of the space. Ultimately space becomes sacred when it evokes certain emotions within individual’s minds. For author and yoga instructor, Natalia Karoway, “[she] always invites spirits into [her] sacred space…of mother earth, the sun, moon and stars” (Karoway, 2018). Karoway teaches mindfulness through yoga, which does not pertain to a god necessarily, but more so to the feelings one has about the space they take up in this world. Sacred space is determined by individuals feelings about an area within their mind and soul.

Religious expression is dependent on individual experience and crucial for creating a sacred space. There are many factors that influence the sacredness of space and by accepting the body, mind, and ritual performance within religions, sacred space can be acknowledged. Karoway believes “sacred space does not need to be limited to the confines of certain places. No matter where we are in any moment, we can create a sacred setting to perform the work of the soul” (Karoway, 2018). In reality, any space no matter where it is can become sacred as long as there is a connection to the divinity or high power. Actions and performances that occur within space give it meaning and purpose. The processes that take place within a building or area create sacredness due to the meaning and intentions to get closer to God or a  higher power. The clothing someone wears within spaces can help differentiate a sacred space from one that’s ordinary. Dancing and the way one moves their body within space can bring someone closer to the supernatural elements within space. The way space can affect the mind and evoke different emotions for every individual allows sacredness to transcend into that place. Not every space is sacred universally, but that is what makes religion unique. If everything was inherently and universally sacred, technically nothing would be sacred.Views on space, beliefs within certain religions, gatherings of people with similar values, inner thoughts within the mind, and physical performance and ritual action all serve to make space sacred. This may differ between religions, but ultimately these characteristics lead to the sacredness within space anywhere. A building is just a building until an individual comes along to add meaning to the space to make it sacred.

Works Cited

Arel, Stephanie. “Reading The Road with Paul Ricoeur and Julia Kristeva: The Human Body as a Sacred Connection.” Text Matter, no. 4 (2014). 99-115.

Buttimer, Anne. “Afterword: Reflections on Geography, Religion, and Belief Systems.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 96, no. 1 (2006): 197-202. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00509.x.

Elias, Abu Amina. “All Human Life is Sacred in Islam.” Faith in Allah. September 30, 2015. https://abuaminaelias.com/all-human-life-is-sacred-in-islam/ .

Finlayson, Caitlin Cihak. “Spaces of Faith: Incorporating Emotion and Spirituality in Geographic Studies.” Environment and Planning A 44, no. 7 (2012): 1763-778. doi:10.1068/a44580.

Frothingham, OB. “The Sacredness of the Body.” Herald of Health (1867) : 1-5. Accessed March 19, 2018. file:///Users/home/Downloads/reasearch%20source%201.pdf.

Hitchcock, Susan Tyler., and John L. Esposito. Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk . Washington, D.C.: National Geographic (printed for Barnes & Noble,), 2012.

Legtsok, Tenzin. “How Do Holy Objects Work?” fpmt. 2015. https://fpmt.org/mandala/online-features/how-do-holy-objects-work/ .

Karoway, Natalia. “Defining Sacred Space.” Teach.Yoga. 2018. https://teach.yoga/defining-sacred-space/ .

Kong, Lily. “Negotiating Conceptions of Sacred Space: A Case Study of Religious Buildings in Singapore.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 18, no. 3 (1993): 342. doi:10.2307/622464.

Labermeier, Donna. “Everywhere You Are Is Sacred Space.” Huffington Post . Oath Inc. February 13, 2014. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-labermeier/sacred-space_b_4415078.htm .

Mason-Barkin, Sara. Rabbis in Relationship: A Feminist Critique of The Rabbi as a Symbolic Exemplar . 2010.

Oesterley, W. O. E. Sacred Dance: A Study in Comparative Folklore . Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 2016.

Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity . Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.

Rose, Gillian, Monica Degen, and Begum Basdas. “More on ‘big Things’: Building Events and Feelings.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35, no. 3 (2010): 334-49. doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2010.00388.x.

“Sacred,” Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacred&oldid=831507352 (accessed March 22, 2018).

Staff, MJL. “Body and Soul.” My Jewish Learning. 2002-2018. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/body-soul/ .

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United Church of God. “The Church Is Not The Building.” United Church of God. February 23, 2011. Accessed April 03, 2018. https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-study-course/bible-study-course-lesson-10/the-church-is-not-the-building .

Influence and Power of Sacred Space

By nicholas buccella.

The use, influence, power, and placement of sacred space has always been a constant element of religion and communities throughout human history and across the world. This paper will explore the rich history of sacred space and how we as humans have utilized and made sacred space a constant theme in our daily lives. To display the ways in which humans have affected sacred space and how it in turn has affected us, I will delve into the history of sacred space itself. Where it really began, how it became what it is today, and how we perceive sacred space as individuals. Sacred space is an integral part of society even today, although a good number of people are not aware of this. Whether it be the church down the road or a personal favorite coffee shop, sacred space takes on many different and numerous forms that are often over looked in the study of space itself. Looking deeper and analyzing the beginning of sacred spaces and connecting the dots to the modern world, the connections become clear to how our everyday lives are affected by sacred space, no matter how small or large, it is almost always there. Those are the dots that this paper will connect, the past and present of sacred space and how it has played into human history and into individual lives.

One of the most difficult issues when dealing with sacred space is defining what a sacred space is. There is no real clear cut definition of what exactly a sacred space could be, but a good starting point is that, “A sacred place is first of all a defined place, a space distinguished from other spaces”(Thomson). Meaning that a sacred place is just a place that is different in some way than any normal place. This is where the definition gets a little tricky. Going off the assumption that a sacred space is just a space that is different from others, that means that anything could be sacred based on who is interacting with that particular area. This helps us understand why the exact definition of a sacred space is very difficult to get right, is because it could vary drastically from person to person.

The history of sacred spaces is as old as human history itself. There has always been some form of sacred space that humans have always gathered around or revered in a special way. Looking at the early Abrahamic religions, sacred space held an important precedence over the followers of religion and how they lived their lives. The easiest and most prominent example of important sacred space in the Abrahamic religions is Jerusalem. This city holds extremely important sites and spaces that involve Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. There are many sites to examine within the city of Jerusalem, many of which are only sacred to certain groups of religious followers. This once again begs the question of what makes something sacred or special? Reverend Samuel G. Candler of the St. Philip Cathedral explains it like this, “I think of awesome places outside our comfortable homes that we call holy. Wide beaches, where our eye meets the mystery of the horizon. Mountain views, where the clouds move constantly into new and mesmerizing configurations. And, of course, I think of churches.”(Candler) This is obviously a Christian point of view on the matter but I think it sheds some light on the question of what is sacred, and expands sacredness to the whole world. Mainly nature and like the Reverend pointed out, churches. Within Jerusalem one of, if not the holiest sites for Christianity sits in the old section of the city. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church within Jerusalem that contains “the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified,[2] at a place known as “Calvary” or “Golgotha”, and Jesus’s empty tomb, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected.”(Wikipedia). The Church is where the figure head of one of the world most prominent religions is said to have resurrected, imagine being a follower at the time this event is said to have taken place. The sway this must have had over the people of Christianity at the time is immense. The history of this sacred space is a testament to how space influences humanity and how we interact with the world around us. This church has stood since the founding of Christianity and has maintained a status that few places ever acquire, it has attained almost a state of timelessness. Remaining almost exactly how it was when Jesus was crucified at the site, is a display of how sacred space is maintained and revered by humans. The space has been cared for and protected for thousands of years. Protected because it is seen as sacred. It has a level of significance that is almost awe inspiring because of its trait of timelessness. This is a trait of almost any historical sacred space anywhere in the world. Being that timelessness is such an important element in the history of sacred space it is easy to see that, “ One of the most important things about any sacred space is the way in which it transcends our normal sense of time, and by that I don’t mean that it has no connection to a time, but only that shows us with absolute clarity what the meaning of the word “timeless” is.”(Goldberger) timelessness could also be connected to spirituality of a space as well because most sacred spaces “all share at least one common quality: an intense spirituality that makes them special”(The Gale Group) I find the play between time and spirituality very interesting. Throughout history it has seemed that the more time that passes the more holier historical sites get. With garnered holiness comes more sway over the people of that faith. This has been the model for almost all historical sacred space throughout human history. Like Stonehenge being one of the oldest sites in the world, it was a sacred space to the people who built it and with time it has garnered more importance and spirituality. The same with important religious sites in the Middle East and in Europe. The more time that a sacred space exists the more it is respected and the more people connect with it spiritually. This is the history of all sacred spaces around  the globe because spirituality and time transcend borders and races as well as religions themselves. These spaces are anointed and revered for the feelings they evoke in followers and that is why the history of sacred spaces is so easy to track and understand, is because of the timelessness they hold.

From the history of sacred space comes the placement of sacred space and the power it emits in the lives of humans across the world. The placement of spaces that individuals hold sacred speaks to the importance these places hold for humans. For the followers of certain religions the placement of sacred spaces varies drastically, whether it may be the church at the center of town or a Buddhist monastery high in the Tibetan mountains, they all carry a certain weight of importance upon the followers of that religion. A sacred space is not always linked to a religion either, a non religious person could feel that a certain mountain or waterfall is sacred. These spaces in nature and the spaces created by man are sacred because of the emotions they evoke in the followers who visit. I would argue there is a sizable difference between a religious sacred space and a natural space that is held as sacred to a few individuals that see it that way. The context of a religious space has the element of the divine deity or divine power within a space. Looking again at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the element of the divine and its hold over the followers of Christianity is very evident. This is relevant because, “It may be argued that most of the world’s religions — from the most ‘primitive’ to the most highly developed — were established through manifestations of the sacred. It is of vital importance to religion that the manifestation is perceived not as generated by the beholder but as the purposeful revelation of god (or some lesser deity or saint) to the mortal beholder”(Witcombe)Within the space of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre it is said that Jesus rose from the dead out of a tomb. This makes that area practically ooze with divine power and would most likely make the experience of that space extremely sacred. The placement of these spaces is very important to understand the power that they emit into the world. In medieval times churches of the Christian faiths were the centerpiece of towns and more often than not the first real part of a town that is permanently built. This is because of the devotion followers shared for not only their religion but also to the sacred spaces their religion demands. In small villages these churches might have been the first things built but they were often not very striking or imposing. They were meant more as a community gathering place for worship and for important governing decisions. Everything was done through the churches. When the Christian faith grew more and more there were bigger and bigger churches constructed solely for the purpose of displaying the grand power of the church. In Europe “The cathedrals and former monastery churches are much larger than needed for the local population.”(Spanswick) for the express purpose of making the church goers feel the power of the space they were occupying and appreciate their god. This is true with most famous churches throughout the world that are well known. Most churches that are well known are known because of how immense they are. There was never a need for a church the size of three football fields, except for the purpose of displaying divine power. The power being displayed is not always a negative, people often draw happiness and personal power from religious spaces that emit divine power. The power of their sacred space often boosts their own personal power making the day or week easier to manage. This is also true of non religious sacred space. Non religious people and even religious people have sacred spaces that do not have to do with a religion. As the exact definition of sacred space is difficult to express, a clear consensus among the Geographers of Religion is that a sacred space is any space that makes an individual feel a sense of peace or spirituality. This leads to many non-traditional sacred spaces. Like I had mentioned earlier in this paper, that any space could be sacred depending on the individual viewing it, like maybe the coffee shop that is an individuals sacred space to escape reality and feel at peace. If that is the case then there would be sacred places everywhere for that individual as that is where they feel their peace. Whether religious or not, a space where one draws emotional and mental power can be regarded as sacred, along with the placement of the space and how it influences the individuals that regard it as sacred.

This takes us to the present day where the element of sacredness seems to be forgotten in most areas. I would argue that this is not the case. As the world seems to become more secular it would be logical to assume that sacred space would go out the door with religion. I find that this is not correct. In our modern world where everything is changing rapidly and there is a new scientific discovery every other day, sacred space has changed and evolved as well. With change comes criticism and approval. Michael Foster writes in the Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art, and Architecture that,

“Sadly the role of sacred spaces has gone the way of big box retail, with the mega-church model moving congregations to large suburban parking lots far from the vibrant urban fabric. Much-needed renovations of existing churches, synagogues, and mosques in urban areas are challenged by changing demographics and are often deferred indefinitely, until the buildings become obsolete or abandoned. Many are lost to redevelopment, and others are at risk of deterioration beyond the point of feasible renovation.”(Foster)

I do agree with Foster that for the Christian faith the mega churches have a way of taking the sacred and turning it into more of a show than a church. Although it does depend on the people within these mega churches as well. If the large number of people who attend these mega churches find the area or congregation sacred, than who are we to judge what they see as sacred? This is a fundamental issue with the modern perspective on sacred spaces and how we analyze them. When thinking of a sacred space we usually assume a small church or comfortable space that holds and importance, not a giant stadium with 15,000 church goers. The temptation to say that these aren’t sacred spaces is very strong as they do not fit in the narrative of traditional sacred space. Yet they are, or could be, because of the evolution of sacred space in our modern era. The point that foster makes about the decaying and demolished sacred sites is valid as well. Many urban areas upscale to more modern standards and the older spaces are either forgotten or have to be preserved, which can be extremely costly, especially to a nonprofit church. This is a issue that more and more religious denominations must deal with in order to survive in urban areas.

While the shift away from religion seems to just be beginning, it is still significant in this changing world. In America, “The percentage of adults who describe themselves as “religiously affiliated” has shrunk 6 points since 2007, from 83 percent to 77 percent.”(Gjelten). So it becomes very apparent why the major religious groups would be worried about this shift. The spaces that have been held as sacred for generations might be forgotten in another hundred years as religion is left behind by more people. This comes back to the point that not all spaces that are sacred have to do with religion. Speaking for myself I find the most sacred place to me to be at the top of a mountain. The peace I feel within myself at the summit of a hike is one of the most sacred things I can describe and it has nothing to do with religion. This is the mindset of many people in more recent generations. Many factors can go into the reason as to why this is happening but I think it mainly has to do with the advancement of science and younger people wanting to be free from the constraints of organized religion. The mindset of younger people in todays world is more how to please oneself and discover who you are, rather than learn who god is and devote time to the church. With this comes a whole new swath of sacred spaces. While mine is the top of Old Rag Mountain, the student sitting next to could name the Starbucks next to campus as their sacred space because of the peace they feel their. And while that Starbucks may be their sacred space today, in a couple of years their definition of sacred space could have changed multiple times. This is the current state of sacred space today. It is ever changing and its definition will change from person to person.

To conclude I find the importance of sacred space has not diminished at all. The thing that has changed is what we consider to be sacred space. In the past there was a clear cut definition of what spaces could be seen as sacred, but in today’s world this definition of sacred space could be so vastly different depending on the person. I personally think this is magnificent. We as humans are no longer containing the sacredness of spaces to religions. We are exploring what sacredness is and where to find it. The fact that anything could be sacred is mind blowing and confusing at the same time, but I think that is why it works so well. The young people of the world are creative and free thinkers, always thinking outside the box and innovating. Sacred space being affected by the new innovators of tomorrow is something everyone should be excited about, because as more space is defined as sacred or not, more things change and more ideas of the interpretations of the sacred are opened up. Nevertheless the sacred is a constant theme in our lives, even if we do not see it or think of it, the sacred is there. It has shaped us in the past and the sacred continues to shape us into the future as we shape the sacred as well.

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The Gale Group, Inc. “Sacred Places.” New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Encyclopedia.com, 2018, www.encyclopedia.com/history/latin-america-and-caribbean/cuban-history/sacred-places .

Thomson Gale. “Sacred Space.” Encyclopedia of Religion, Encyclopedia.com, 2018,  www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sacred-space .

Witcombe, Christopher L. C. E. “SACREDNESS.” Sacred Places: Sacredness, witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/sacredness.html.

Wikipedia, “Church of the Holy Sepulchre.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre.

Ziettlow, Rev. Amy. “Creating Sacred Space in Life and Death.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 Mar. 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-amy-ziettlow/creating-sacred-space-in-_b_831544.html .

Sacred Space As a Stage

By olivia mason-lucas.

Behaviors within all spaces are not mere products of the individual’s personal feelings, perspectives, and experiences. The individual projects these factors onto their environment and the environment reciprocates. The design and architectural choices made by the overseer of the project made a choice predating the individuals that visit it; at one point in time, someone decided how they wanted the space to feel. This sense of ‘feeling’ can be positive or negative, empowering or humbling. The human experience is largely based on communication, both with other living beings and inanimate objects. When one acts in the presence of others in a space designated for a specific purpose, such as worship, it can be qualified as a type of performance that’s a product of multiple factors. Behavior is influenced by personal sentiments, the structure and design itself, and a combination of the two. Architecture as well as structural choices impact one’s feelings about any given space, which creates a manufactured response, or a performance, in reaction to the given stimuli. In the realm of sacred spaces, special attention is given to the intended meaning of each choice made by the designer and architect, and what the end result means for the structure it produces.

Dynamic Nature of Spaces and Individuals

The idea of spaces as living entities will guide this discussion along. Spaces are comprised of three components: the physical makeup, the perceived, and the intended. Any of these three concepts can influence the way one experiences space, and oftentimes, all of them do. Due to the unique interpretation and perspective each person posesses, everyone will experience an environment differently. (Goleman 1987) Architecture, therefore, is not static as it is thought to be; surely, the structure itself may never change but that’s only one aspect. The environment is a chimera, or a shapeshifter, due to its tendency to represent and evoke different emotions and experiences in individuals. “[T]here are links between the design of the built environment and our behavior, both individually and socially. (Lockton 2011)” Each person, in turn, has a different conversation with a space while they occupy it; the tone or type of conversation is in no way obligated to be the same as they return, either. The interaction is constantly changing. Despite the tendency of humans to view themselves in one distinct way over long periods of time, they are dynamic creatures. It is only natural to assume that the are constantly learning, growing, and changing.

While this is maintained, it is necessary to note how familiarity changes interpretation of space. As people become more intimate with sacred spaces, they tend to only notice the same things over and over, as opposed to an outsider noticing everything for the first time.

Architectural Choices and Space

The architect of a space employs extreme privilege and influence in their ability to determine how a space looks and the feelings they want it to evoke. These choices lay the foundation for experiences within all spaces, even those considered sacred. Moods and feelings can be created through decisions concerning lighting, designation of space, color, and imagery. Architecture, in a way, encompasses the field of design. It concerns itself with the “technical, artistic, and social. (Architecture/Introduction 2018)” A great deal of the work goes into how what’s done will be received by those who will inhabit or view the space.  “[A]rchitecture is a technology increasingly deployed in order to encourage certain behaviours in human populations. (Rose, Degen and Basdas 2010)” This engineered environment sets the stage, literally, for reactions to it. This performative element can be subtle or distinct.

Large, open spaces are used to convey a feeling of insignificance, a feeling generally experienced in natural spaces, such as on beaches and mountains. The feeling of insignificance is difficult to replicate as size and the cost of land on which to place a grand structure can be either unrealistic or costly. In the same approach, small spaces create a sense of intimacy that is otherwise ignored or overlooked in other spaces. Despite the great influence of architectural choices, some interpretation can be limited due to lack of attention to design choices or specific aspects of a space. (Rummel 1976) Since each person is socialized differently, they give importance to different objects that peak their interest and may act in the absence of the intended catalytic choice made by the architect. (Abdel Moneim Abdel Kader n.d.)

Sacred spaces garner their power by othering themselves from the spaces directly around them. This intentional juxtaposition heightens the meaning of the space. (Rose, Degen and Basdas 2010) It is not that they are particularly spectacular or special in design or makeup, but that they differ in size, shape, or appearance from structures around them.

While it’s maintained that sacred space is highly personal and subjective, certain structures can be identified as notable for qualities possessed that aren’t explicitly attributed to religion or are aesthetically pleasing. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC is the largest Roman Catholic Church in the United States and bears religious imagery on the outside of the structure.  

However, its importance can be attributed to a variety of factors concerning its location, orientation, and design. The church’s location in the nation’s capital lends to a perceived sense of sacredness due to the association of importance with the city as well as the feeling of citizens of the United States to feel particularly separated from the territory, spatially and emotionally. The idea of a capital city lends to these feelings: the space is seen as significantly more relevant than small towns within the country, attributed to history, centralization of industry and political interactions, and concentration of people. The Basilica is situated atop a hill, not only towering over surrounding structures, but occupying the entire space around it. Its material composition of light stone and stained class exude dominance over the side of the street it inhabits. Though it is surrounded by numerous religious institutions for higher education, it comes through as the most religious or sacred space in the area, if not the entire city or country.

Ford’s Theater, also in Washington, DC, possesses some aspects of sacredness that overlap with those of the Basilica. The theater has more widespread appeal due to what happens there: theatrical productions and educational tours. (Lincoln’s Assassination 2018) From the street, one can almost walk right past the esteemed site of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination; it blends right in with the background of the city. Though it is relevant in the modern day, its prominence stems from its identification as a site of a tragedy that led to a chain of events which follows through to today.

Sacredness, as it pertains to religious geography, is a culmination of the actions of people within a given space, the architectural choices that influence those rituals, and the meaning attached by people. As it boils down, sacredness is attributed to humans, whether their ideas, actions, or the results of both. While the importance of architecture and design choices on behavior are significant, the lack of both in disenfranchised areas creates a transition from focus on an engineered atmosphere to a raw environment that may lack the same attention to interpretation and impact. In these instances, the behavior exhibited by individuals becomes a product of the space, their experiences, as well as their imaginations. This is not to say that these experiences are wrong or less relevant, it is to say that behavioral responses to accidental or coincidental spaces exist and are brought about in the same way as those in structured spaces.

Behavior Within Spaces

Recognition of the fluid nature of places aids in acknowledgment of behavior within these spaces as performances. These actions are brought about by norms instilled, whether cultural, regional, or familial; interpretations of environments; and personal experiences. There are expectations in every space one enters, regardless of whether they are explicitly posted or stated. Environments such as museums warrant different behaviors than amusement parks do, but the same core beliefs play into both. One is expected to be respectful of others and the space, not harm others, and leave the environment as they encountered it, to some degree. As children, these baseline rules, along with others, are delivered to guide behavior. When in any space, one assesses their personal inventory of norms and rules then proceeds to apply them to their surroundings. (About Behavioral Analysis 2018) This type of behavioral analysis drives humanity forward. Unspoken sets of rules and norms of behavior are utilized inside of, and not limited to the surrounding area of, an important structure. The distinct separation between different places allows for this performance or lack thereof. It can be argued that any actions conducted around others are performative, but this does not negate their genuine nature.

With the idea that all forms of behavior are merely reactions to the given environment, identified as performances, those acted upon within spaces designated as sacred overlap with rituals. “We as humans do seem to have a mechanism for instantly recognizing that something is going on, and we have several models of what that specific event might be, though it may be difficult for one to verbalize if asked. (van Beek 2013)” Oftentimes, humans may recognize that they are acting differently than they would if they were outside on the street, yet either pay little to no attention to it or are not self-aware enough to pinpoint what exactly is happening to them. In sacred spaces, behavioral norms are some of the most intense and require countless things from visitors: quiet, respect, nice clothing, assembled appearance, lowered voices. In an exhibition of this idea in action, the conduct of classmates will be presented and analyzed while on a trip to The, aforementioned, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

In the February of 2018, a Sacred Spaces class from the University of Mary Washington, located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, went on a field trip to The Basilica in DC. The class regularly engaged in class discussions where ideas were exchanged concerning journal articles and chapters. The students were very limited with what wasn’t acceptable within discussions and were genuinely themselves, with little to mask. It is important to note that not all of the students of the class were Catholic, or even parishioners of religion. Despite this reality, every member of the class presented themselves with various levels of business casual to “dressy” attire, due to the air of their destination.

When first stepping inside the doors, nobody made a sound. The sounds made were hushed and whispered; the main chapel of the church was void of people, save for the class. Technically, there was no reason to be quiet. Throughout the tour and navigation of the space, the classmates continued to whisper, only raising their voices to ask the guide questions. This trend continued through most of the structure, even the stairwells, and broke when the group encountered the cafeteria, located beneath the main chapel. In this space, they returned to their sociable selves. (Mason-Lucas 2018) While a participant in the phenomenon I was observing, I couldn’t figure out what made this space so different from literally every other one around it. I considered it the whole bus ride back to campus. As soon as we arrived, I figured it out; it was the designation of space that made a difference. Behavior is influenced by designation in addition to all of the aforementioned tenets.

The communicative nature of humans is important to note as individual behaviors are brought about partially by the actions of those around them. (Douglas 1966) Therefore, they may act as a collective, or in response to those around them. This idea serves to explain how classmates observed each other when unsure of how to proceed within the space. They looked to each other quite often and explored the area in groups or pairs, as opposed to individually.

Unique Sacred Spaces and Performance

Informal spaces that manifest as sacred are more common than one might think and are often heavily dependent on a mood or feeling to convey the intended response. Ghost tours and locations associated with the supernatural draw from generalized fears of the public. The tour guides go the extra mile to create an atmosphere representative of possibility and the selling point is whether participants buy into it or not. (Holloway 2010) In these informal, or vernacular, environments, it is easier for individuals to remove themselves from what they’re being confronted with because it is that much easier to recognize that they’re being confronted in the first place.

The genuine nature of actions exhibited by humans is not cheapened by the performance aspect. Life is constantly riddled with the free will versus fate debate and this discussion of influence determines that behavior within all spaces, especially sacred ones, are a combination of both. Rituals, as well as other religious acts, are characterized by the interactions among people and the space they inhabit. While it is generally accepted that people themselves are where sacredness originates, the behavior they exhibit supplements and magnifies it. Personal experiences and architectural choices shape actions within sacred spaces so each person walks away with distinct interpretations of what went on in that given environment. Sacred spaces are stages for more than those who are not skilled but are performers just the same.

Abdel Moneim Abdel Kader, Walid. n.d. Architecture and Human Behavior: Does Design Affect Our Senses?

About Behavioral Analysis.  2018. Accessed April 14, 2018. https://www.bacb.com/about-behavior-analysis/.

Architecture/Introduction.  2018. April 1. Accessed April 2, 2018. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Architecture/Introduction.

Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York : Routledge.

Goleman, Daniel. 1987. “Each Sibling Experiences Different Family.” The New York Times , July 28.

Holloway, Julian. 2010. “Legend-tripping in spooky spaces: ghost tourism andinfrastructures of enchantment.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 618-637.

Lincoln’s Assassination.  2018. Accessed April 15, 2018. https://www.fords.org/lincolns-assassination/.

Lockton, Dan. 2011. Architecture, urbanism, design and behaviour: a brief review. September 12. Accessed March 20, 2018. http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2011/09/12/architecture-urbanism-design-and-behaviour-a-brief-review/.

Rose, Gillian, Monica Degen, and Begum Basdas. 2010. “More on ‘big things’: building events and feelings.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 334-349.

Rummel, R. J. 1976. “Social Behavior.” In The Conflict Helix , by R. J. Rummel. Accessed April 20, 2018. https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/TCH.CHAP9.HTM.

van Beek, Walter E. A. 2013. “Ritual and the Quest for Meaning.” By Our Rites of Worship: Latter-day Saint Views on Ritual in Scripture, History, and Practice 15-36.

Sacred Spaces: An Open Introduction to the Geographic Study of Religions and Belief Systems Copyright © by Sophie Ahava; Nicholas Buccella; and Olivia Mason-Lucas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter 1: Sacredness and Everyday Life

Rediscovering the sacred: perspectives on religion in contemporary society by robert wuthnow.

How does our experience of the sacred differ from our experience of everyday life? How does the sacred penetrate this reality? What can we learn about the nature and functions of the sacred by considering the nature and functions of everyday life?

It is perhaps odd to think of everyday life as the place to begin in searching for the sacred. Our daily lives, after all, are carried out largely in the context of a thoroughly secular environment. We eat and sleep, work and play, strive to achieve and seek comfort for our failures. But the world of the sacred is set apart. It concerns worship, beliefs in the supernatural, prayer, the ecstasy of religious experience, and the escape of meditative withdrawal. And yet there is much to be learned about the sacred by locating it in relation to the mundane experiences of everyday reality.

Peter Berger has offered a most persuasive formulation of the relation of religion to everyday life with his idea of the "sacred canopy." 1 Not only is the definitional discussion of religion presented in Berger’s book by this title one of the most frequently referred to in the sociology of religion, but his conceptual framework has also provided the starting point for dozens of empirical investigations and theoretical essays. 2

Despite its influence in the discipline, The Sacred Canopy has been superseded by many contributions to the sociology of religion in more recent years. Often stimulated by Berger’s work, contributions have appeared in a number of related fields, such as cultural anthropology, sociology of knowledge, sociolinguistics, textual criticism, and discourse analysis. Some of these contributions have drawn sympathetically on Berger’s ideas about the sacred and everyday life, recasting them in ways that further illuminate the significance of their original insights. Other contributions have provided empirical evidence that buttresses some of the initial claims. Still other work has raised questions about biases or limitations in the basic perspective. In addition, the corpus of work on this topic has grown so substantially that it is often frustrating to the beginning student. For these reasons, some attempt to summarize and evaluate the idea of religion as a sacred canopy seems in order.

There is, as well, another important reason for reconsidering the relation between sacredness and everyday life that we find spelled out in Berger’s work. Ironically, this relation has not yet been fully appreciated in the social science literature. Despite its considerable currency, the idea of religion as sacred canopy seems not to have been grasped in more than a superficial way in much of the literature. Empirical studies often refer to it almost in ceremonial obeisance while failing to incorporate it into the research design in any meaningful way. And theoretical discussions often praise its philosophical grandeur without providing any firm guidelines for empirical testing.

The result is that much of the broader significance of the original contribution has been missed. Religion tends to be understood in ways narrower than Berger would have had us recognize, while behaviorist and reductionistic conceptions of the individual — which discount the importance of religion — continue to hold sway in many places of power and influence. The significance of the sacred can be rediscovered by looking again at the theoretical breadth and humanistic depth we find in Berger’s perspective on the sacred canopy.

An Inventory of Basic Arguments

The prose in which Berger’s arguments are embedded is rich with suggestive examples and yet beguiling in its presentation of a vast armamentarium of conceptual and philosophical undergirdings. Berger is a skilled theorist who knows how to present a compelling example but also how to provide the necessary caveats and qualifications for his arguments. Consequently, the unsuspecting reader may find himself or herself lost in a thicket of densely entangled connections and presuppositions. To make matters worse, Berger’s formulations flow from a rich web of theoretical deduction from a body of assumptions that he has spelled out at length in three or four of his other book-length treatises. At the risk of oversimplification, then, it seems necessary to attempt a brief summary of the basic arguments we must grasp before we can understand critically the relations between sacredness and everyday life.

The Social Construction of Reality

The initial assumption in the theoretical perspective from which Berger and his followers have operated holds that reality is socially constructed. Like many other sociological theorists, Berger argues that the world we live in is essentially a world of our own design. This is not a way of acknowledging the simple fact that we live among people as well as things, or that we choose our own associates, or even that much of the material world is now the product of human construction. It is rather a more fundamental insight about how we perceive reality.

The basic argument is that a selective process governs the reality we experience. In its brute form, the actual world is infinitely complex, even chaotic, much too rich to experience meaningfully without some filtering process. This filtering process involves the use of symbolic categories. The words we know, the pictures and mental images we share all help to reduce the raw complexity of the world to a "reality" that has order and meaning.

The profound extent to which our experience is shaped by symbolism has been amply demonstrated by empirical research. Studies comparing different languages suggest that some languages are better than others at sensitizing us to certain kinds of experience. Some Native American languages fail to distinguish clearly between past, present, and future verb tenses and thus the linear progression of time may be more difficult to experience in these cultures. With more than twenty words in the Eskimo language to describe snow, some observers suggest that Eskimos actually experience snow in a richer and more variegated form than non-Eskimos. Along similar lines, physiologists believe that the human eye is capable of distinguishing among more than six million hues, and yet the fact that we typically use only about a dozen words to describe colors suggests that we see them much less richly than we are capable of doing. 3

The role of words and symbols has also been emphasized by child psychologists. The reason children require a number of years to develop mastery of certain basic concepts, according to some child psychologists, is not that they are slow in learning the words — they actually know the words quite early — but that they have to start experiencing the world in a new, more simplified way that corresponds with the classifications suggested by these words. 4 For example, young children may know the words spoon, teaspoon, silver, knife, and metal but find it difficult for several years to apply them appropriately to objects in their environment, the reason being partly that these words form multiple and overlapping classifications. Only gradually do the complexities of experience become simplified in ways that allow children to make sense of the categories.

The conclusion suggested by all these studies, then, is that the very world we experience — what we call reality — is shaped by symbols. We do not experience reality "directly," as it were, but through the filters of our symbols. And so we tend to experience what we have symbols for; the remainder is filtered out of our perception.

Recognizing the importance of symbolism — words, utterances, ritual, language, culture — is an important building block in the edifice on which Peter Berger constructs his arguments about religion. He rejects Marxist, behaviorist, and instinct theories that reduce human processes to sheer economic or physiological needs. In his view, and in the view taken by most sociologists of religion, the symbolic realm is both prior to and constitutive of our very experience of the world. And so when Berger says that religion is made up of symbols, he is not thereby asserting that religion is any less important; indeed, he affirms that religion is every bit as much a part of the reality we live in as any other symbolically mediated experience.

Everyday Reality

The second basic component of Berger’s argument is that something called "everyday reality" is paramount. If reality is socially constructed rather than simply received, then we must ask what kind of reality people generally construct for themselves. Do we create worlds that are purely idiosyncratic, or do we construct reality according to some common principles that make communication and hence social life itself possible? The answer Berger gives is an integral feature of his argument about religion. His answer, derived partly from the writings of German phenomenologist Alfred Schutz, is that we construct a shared world that can be called "everyday reality."

Everyday reality is constructed according to several distinct principles. Of course these principles are not consciously applied in the actual tasks of going about our daily business, but they can be inferred by the social theorist. First, primacy in everyday life is given to the "here and now." That which intuitively seems most real to us consists of those things closest to us in time and space — our immediate family and friends seem more "real" than persons in distant Tibet, for example,

and our immediate activities consume our attention In a way that memories of our childhood do not. As we sit at our desks or walk to class, the immediate faces and objects around us seem far more real than do the aspirations we have for ourselves in the future or even the fleeting images that may come to mind from last summer’s vacation.

Second, this here-and-now world is usually defined in terms of standard time and space. Time is linear, progressive, historical, inescapable, irreversible; space is three-dimensional, measurable in distances. We think of everyday life within the framework of minutes, hours, and days, and we measure it in standard spatial units such as feet, yards, miles, or kilometers. And since life revolves around linear time and three-dimensional space, we cannot really live our daily lives in the form of "flashbacks," we cannot escape our bodies, and we cannot occupy two places at the same time. To do any of these things requires us to adopt a different mental framework, a framework that consists of an alternative reality, an escape from the real world of daily life, such as a world of fantasy or daydreams.

Third, everyday reality tends to be a highly pragmatic world. It is the world of work, where things have to get done — the "real world," we tell ourselves. Objects and persons in this world tend to be evaluated instrumentally, in terms of their utility for accomplishing our tasks. Or, put differently, daily realities are supposed to be practical; being other than practical is likely to earn us a reputation of living in a fantasy world.

Closely related to the pragmatism of everyday reality is a fourth characteristic that Berger calls "wide-awakeness." By this he means that everyday reality commands our full attention. Perhaps we become bored and fall into daydreaming, but succumbing to these temptations is tantamount to removing ourselves, if only momentarily, from the reality of the world around us. Wide-awakeness also connotes a basic existential involvement in everyday reality. It is the world in which we live and die, the world in which we grow older and suffer illness, the world of real time where our purposes have to be accomplished.

Fifth, we "willingly suspend doubt" concerning everyday reality. Haunting suspicions that things may not be what they seem are pushed from the forefront of our minds so that full attention can be given to the tasks at hand. This means that everyday reality is a world of surface appearances rather than a world of mysterious essences or underlying principles that require theoretical reflection. It also means that everyday reality is by and large an efficient place in which to carry on our activities. Since we take so much of it for granted, we seldom have to spend time worrying about the reality of its existence.

Finally, we compartmentalize everyday reality into "spheres of relevance" — that is, we characterize some aspects of our daily world as being relevant to the accomplishment of a specific task (say, driving a car or playing tennis) and other aspects as being relevant to different activities. This compartmentalization reduces the inevitable complexity of the world. We simply "bracket out" everything that is not relevant to the task at hand. Thus the pragmatic objectives of everyday reality can be more effectively fulfilled.

Together, these features of everyday reality make it an efficient world in which to live. It is a routine world, an orderly world in which things have their place. Deeper questions, longer-range goals, memories of the past, fundamental values, ambiguity and complexity — all are minimized (to a certain extent) in relation to the pragmatic considerations that govern us in the here and now. Everyday reality is also a safe, secure world in which we know our place and can largely take for granted the objects and persons in our immediate environment. Furthermore, it facilitates social interaction: since time and space are standardized, we know what to expect, and since the norms governing this world make for familiarity and routine, we can interact with others on common ground.

Some of these characterizations of everyday life can, of course, be questioned. For example, it might be asked whether "everyday reality" in ancient India was constructed according to these principles as much as everyday reality in the contemporary West. In other words, Berger’s characterization may have more to do with our own experience in contemporary Western society than it does with the way things have to be or the way things always have been. Even in the contemporary West, it might be asked whether the high degree of emphasis given to long-range planning is fully compatible with Berger’s description of everyday reality as a world of the here-and-now. Nearly all of us, for instance, have probably experienced driving along the highway with so many thoughts about the future or the past on our mind that We were hardly living in everyday reality at all.

These questions notwithstanding, the idea of everyday reality seems to have enough intuitive appeal to at least support Berger’s use of it as a starting point for further theoretical considerations. His point is not that we should, or even do, live in everyday reality all the time; rather, it is that everyday reality is a familiar world and yet an arbitrary world, because it is a world constructed of symbols, social experiences, and casual presuppositions. Certainly the world of work, as most of us know it, tends to encompass a great deal of our waking hours, absorbs much of our immediate attention, and imposes a kind of pragmatic calculus on much that we do. It is for these reasons that Berger considers it the "paramount reality" — the world in which we spend much of our time and to which we inevitably return after brief excursions into the alternative realities of fantasy, sleep, or philosophical reflection.

Symbolic Universes

The third major component of Berger’s argument is that "symbolic universes" supply broader meaning to everyday life. Although we live mostly in everyday reality, this reality is seriously limited. We need h periodic escapes from the here-and-now. There has to be some means by which questions about longer-range values inform our day-to-day activities or we would merely go from one task to another with no basis for deciding what to do. Pragmatic interests must give way, at least on occasion, to concerns about basic truths, aesthetics, and human relationships. It seems doubtful that we make any of our major decisions about life and love strictly on the basis of pragmatic concerns. The "wide-awakeness" of our existential world is persistently haunted by the prospect of our own death. Experiences of grief— or even experiences of extreme joy or ecstasy — shatter the willing suspension of our doubts and raise questions about the deeper meanings of life. And the compartmentalized spheres of relevance in which we perform our routine tasks require some means of integration if we are to function as whole persons. In short, there seems to be a requirement for meaning that goes beyond the confines of everyday reality.

Following Max Weber, Berger recognizes that some of the lingering experiences of human existence, on the face of it, "make no sense." Innocent suffering, tragedies, and injustices fall into this category. They raise "why" questions. A plane crashes and a seven-year-old girl is badly burned. We feel the pain. We experience the sense of injustice. We ask why it had to happen. We ask why suffering has to happen at all. When such events are experienced personally, Berger argues, they seem to occur on the fringes of everyday reality, thus forcing us to reckon with broader questions about the legitimacy of that reality. They take us to the edge of our existence and force us to think about the meaning of it all. And the same can be said, albeit in a positive way, about experiences of play, beauty, or ecstasy that open up vistas of reality that seem to transcend daily life.

According to the perspective Berger adopts, there is also a requirement for meaning that integrates the separate spheres of relevance in everyday life. Implicit in his approach is the assumption that meanings are always contextually determined. For example, if I hold up my fingers in the sign of a V , I may mean "let’s fight to the bitter end and achieve victory" in one context, or in a different setting my signal may mean "peace." The meaning of this symbolic act clearly depends on the setting in which it occurs. By the same token, the meaning of any specific activity in everyday life (say, cooking dinner) is given by the broader sphere of relevance in which it occurs (e.g., being a parent). Without this broader context, it will seem arbitrary, something that has no significance. But these spheres of relevance, in turn, have meaning only in relation to some broader context, and these contexts to broader contexts still. In other words, any set of activities must be related to something larger than itself in order to have meaning: cooking to parenting, parenting to having warm human relationships, warm relationships to a sense of living in community, or whatever. The solution to the problem of meaning, then, is to posit a hierarchical series of symbolic frameworks that give meaning and integration to ever-widening segments of life. Within this logic, questions about "the meaning of life" itself represent the most encompassing form of symbolic integration.

Berger uses the term "symbolic universe" to refer to symbols or symbol systems that are concerned with providing meaning to reality in the most encompassing sense. He defines symbolic universes as "bodies of theoretical tradition that integrate different provinces of meaning and encompass the institutional order in a symbolic totality." 5 Symbolic universes differ in scope from several other concepts that Berger employs to refer to understandings of more limited spheres

explanations, maxims, proverbs, propositions, and theories. Symbolic universes occupy a prominent place in Berger’s overall conceptual framework. They provide integration and legitimation at the highest level. And this integration and legitimation is necessitated by the limited character of everyday reality itself.

The final component in Berger’s argument focuses on religion, which he identifies as a type of symbolic universe. The need for some overarching symbol system can be fulfilled in a variety of ways: through personal philosophies of life, scientific worldviews, secular philosophies such as Marxism or nihilism, or commonsense ideas about luck and fate. Religion is one type of symbolic universe. In The Sacred Canopy Berger defines religion as "the establishment, through human activity, of an all-embracing sacred order, that is, of a sacred cosmos that will be capable of maintaining itself in the ever-present face of chaos." 6 According to this definition, religion is a symbol system that imposes order ("cosmos") on the entire universe, on life itself, and thereby holds chaos (disorder) at bay. Elsewhere, Berger elaborates by pointing out that religions provide legitimation and meaning in a distinctly "sacred" mode, that they offer claims about the nature of ultimate reality as such, about the location of the human condition in relation to the cosmos itself.

Conceiving of religion in this manner and locating it in reference to everyday life helps to illuminate its typical functions. Religious teachings characteristically serve to shelter the individual from chaos— from a reality that seems to make no sense — by providing explanations for suffering, death, tragedy, and injustice. They integrate the individual’s biography by providing an overarching frame of reference that applies to all of life, that locates the individual ultimately in space and time, that specifies an ultimate purpose for the individual’s life and thus permits daily activities to be organized around the fulfillment of this purpose.

In addition to religious teachings, religious rituals provide mechanisms for containing the potentially disruptive experiences of mourning on the one hand, or. of transcendent joy on the other. Funerals, weddings, and other religiously orchestrated rites of passage (e.g., christenings, baptisms, showers, hospital visits) thus maintain the stability of everyday life by providing occasions on which the nonordinary can be experienced. And for a society at large, religion legitimates institutionalized life by relating its existence to the "nature of things," to the gods. As Berger puts it, "religion legitimates social institutions by bestowing upon them an ultimately valid ontological status, that is, by locating them within a sacred and cosmic frame of reference." 7

In his definition of religion, Berger stresses that it is established "through human activity." This assertion is not meant to imply that religion is either false or ultimately nothing more than the fabrication of human minds — indeed, Berger argues in other writings that the transcendent seems to break through humanly constructed worlds, as it were, from the outside, However, the social scientist must recognize the degree to which religion, like all symbol systems, involves human activity. Religion is a reality that inevitably draws on cultural materials, that is filtered through the symbolically constructed reality of personal experience. Moreover, it is maintained through the social interaction of individuals. Thus, despite the fact that Berger gives prominence to religious symbolism, he also recognizes the importance of churches and synagogues, worship services, and religious communities for the perpetuation of any religious system.

In The Sacred Canopy Berger articulates the relation between religious symbolism and social interaction by suggesting a dialectic interplay between the two. Starting with a hypothetical individual who experiences a requirement for some form of all-embracing meaning, Berger imagines the emergence of a religious symbol system as a result of this individual interacting with others in similar circumstances. This phase of the dialectic he terms "externalization." In other words, the subjective moods and motivations of these individuals become an external reality in the form of concrete symbols that can be discussed or acted upon. Next, the emergent symbol system becomes "objectified"; that is, through further interaction it ceases to be the creation of any single individual but rather becomes something "out there" that may even be codified in formal creeds and sacred writings. No longer is it something that someone "made up" or has control over; rather, it is a feature of the outside world — a set of creeds, rituals, and institutions — that confronts the individual with authority of its own. Finally, this reality is "internalized," becoming once again part of the individual’s subjective identity.

Berger speaks of religion in these dialectic terms only for analytic convenience, of course. No assumptions are necessary about the historic origins of religion for the dialectic to be useful. What it highlights is simply that religion can be viewed from several different angles: as discourse and practice through which the individual expresses religious convictions (externalization), as a formalized cultural system or subsystem that can be examined to some extent independently of the individuals who believe in it (objectification), and as the beliefs, sentiments, and experiences of the individual (internalization).

Berger does introduce one important additional concept into his discussion of religion as dialectic, however: the idea of "plausibility structures." Any religious system remains plausible only as people articulate it in their conversation and dramatize it in their social interaction. The conversation and interaction that maintains religion, then, becomes its plausibility structure. For many, participation in religious institutions such as churches or synagogues serves as the plausibility structure for their religion. Kinship ties, friendship networks, and local communities may also serve the same purpose. As individuals discuss their beliefs with like-minded individuals, these beliefs become more believable, more compelling than they might otherwise seem, especially someone outside the community of faith.

Evidence Supporting This Conception of Religion

Among the numerous empirical claims on which this theory of religion rests, perhaps the most crucial is the assumption that people seek broader forms of meaning than those supplied by everyday reality. Only if people register concern for questions about the meaning of life, the causes of suffering, and so forth does it make sense to emphasize the role of symbolic universes of any kind, let alone religion. Put differently, religious beliefs may be empirically evident, but unless a more universal quest for overarching meaning exists, this approach to understanding religion may be the wrong way of going about it.

There is in the social sciences a rather well-established tradition that disputes the idea — as a theoretical proposition — of some intrinsic requirement for an all-embracing conception of meaning. According to this view, personal meaning does not somehow depend on the individual being more than a "sum of the parts" but results exclusively from the discrete roles an individual performs. Thus, well-being could be said to derive simply from the sum of responsibilities performed in everyday life, quite apart from broader questions about the purpose of one’s life. In a highly secularized society this argument naturally seems compelling.

The Quest for Meaning

This argument to the contrary, much evidence has been amassed in recent decades which supports the contention that people are concerned with broader issues of meaning and purpose. A cross-sectional survey of adults in the San Francisco Bay Area (in which only 30 percent identified themselves as church-goers) showed, for example, that 70 percent claimed to think a lot or some about the question of the purpose of life; 73 percent said they think about the existence of God; and 83 percent indicated thinking about why there is suffering in the world. Fewer than one in twenty claimed to have never thought about these questions or to have dismissed them as unimportant. 8

In-depth interviews with people in that study also demonstrated a high degree of willingness to discuss broad questions of meaning and purpose in life. A thirty-nine-year-old public relations worker remarked, for example, that "the meaning of my life is to remember that there are goals that everyone should set and goals that give meaning to everything else you do." A forty-two-year-old social worker responded, "the purpose of life is to be in tune with all the forces and causes in the universe." In a similar vein, a twenty-seven-year-old secretary said, "I think there is harmony in the universe and this harmony gives me meaning." Using more traditional religious language, another person asserted that "we are like co-workers with God to help his will be done; so when we help people to know God, it gives our lives meaning and purpose."

None of this, of course, suggests that everyday life is unimportant as a source of meaning. To the contrary, most people seem to think immediately of daily activities as sources of meaning. For instance, a twenty-eight-year-old mother in the same study, like many other respondents, pointed to "my family and my children primarily, and my careers" Another person answered, "my child, my friends, my hobbies, and mostly my work; they give me a sense of achievement." More quantitatively, the same results were evident in a 1982 Gallup survey that asked people to say how important various things were to their "basic sense of worth as a person." Heading the list was "family" (93 percent listed it as "very important"), followed by "close friends" (63 percent), "financial well-being" (57 percent), and "work" (54 percent). 9

Despite the high importance attached to everyday activities, though, most people continue to reflect on more cosmic questions. In the Gallup survey, for example, 90 percent of the public claimed to have thought about "living a worthwhile life" at least a fair amount (or a lot) during the preceding two years; 83 percent said they had thought often about their "basic values in life"; 81 percent gave the same response for "your relation to God"; and 70 percent gave similar answers for ‘developing your faith." The same study found that eight out of ten people believed that "everything that happens has a purpose" — an apparent substantiation of the claim that people want to shield themselves from chaos by imputing order to the universe. And on a question directly related to Berger’s idea that discrete spheres of relevance in everyday reality need to be integrated by some broader framework, respondents were asked, following a set of items dealing with family, friends, work, and the like as sources of meaning, if they "try to keep all these areas separate or tie them all together?" Seventy-one percent said they try to tie them all together.

Another feature of the argument about religion as a sacred canopy that has been affirmed by empirical research is the idea that experiences at the margins of everyday reality tend to be an important source of reflection about broader questions of meaning and purpose. In the study just cited, respondents were asked first to indicate which among a list of such experiences they had ever had and then whether or not each experience had affected their thoughts about the meaning and purpose of life a great deal. Generally speaking, those who had had these experiences were also prone to say that they had deeply affected their thoughts about the meaning and purpose of life. For example, of those who had ever had a deep religious experience, 83 percent said it had affected their thoughts about meaning and purpose a great deal; the corresponding proportion for those who had experienced having a child was 75 percent, and for those having experienced the death of a close relative or friend, 64 percent.

Systems of Meaning

Other research has explored the question of whether the content of different sacred canopies tends to be important. Berger’s discussion suggests that overtly religious symbolic universes and more secular symbolic universes may perform much the same functions and thus may compete with one another for adherents. He also suggests that in a pluralistic culture elements of several different symbolic universes may be combined to form an individual’s worldview. Several studies have sought to address these claims.

The Bay Area study mentioned previously gave respondents opportunities to apply different symbolic frameworks to broad questions such as how they understood the forces shaping their own life or how they explained the presence of suffering in the world. The results demonstrated a relatively high degree of pluralism among the responses. Most people were prone to perceive multiple influences and causes, including supernatural intervention, social and cultural forces, the functioning of heredity and will power, economic conditions, and luck. Several factor analyses of the responses revealed some clustering around religious, social, and individualistic ideas, but the results also suggested a high degree of "mixing" among different thematic traditions. About half of the respondents could be classified according to the thematic tradition on which they drew most heavily, but the remainder were genuinely eclectic, drawing equally from several traditions for their understandings.

Another study, also conducted in the San Francisco area, demonstrated that symbolic universes tend not to be applied with high degrees of consistency to different types of questions. On the average, about half the responses given to such questions as why racial differences exist, why someone might be killed in an airplane crash or die young, and why suffering in general exists were consistent with one another; the remaining half drew from different thematic traditions. 10

The evidence thus tends to support the idea that in a pluralistic culture individuals are likely to draw on several different symbolic universes to cope with broad questions of meaning and purpose. Some evidence also suggests that eclecticism may be prominent even in less pluralistic settings. A national study of commune members, for example, showed that many individuals in these settings held assumptions different from the official ideologies of their communes. 11

The fact that individuals do not draw consistently from a single symbolic universe in constructing their personal worldviews has been taken, on occasion, as evidence that the basic concept of symbolic universes is faulty. 12 This criticism, however, mistakenly confuses consistency with coherence. Berger’s point is not that symbolic universes impose substantive consistency on a person’s attitudes but only that symbolic universes lend coherence to the reality they experience by linking it together and giving it overarching meaning.

Meaning Systems and Lifestyles

Research has also explored the question of whether the content of different symbolic universes tends to predict differences in more specific attitudes or lifestyle attributes. The Bay Area study which asked questions about personal meaning, for example, suggested that the content of different meaning systems was a good predictor of propensities to become involved in or to abstain from various social reform activities and alternative lifestyles. Persons whose symbolic universes emphasized the role of supernatural forces tended not to believe that society could be reformed through human action and refrained from experimenting personally with alternative lifestyles. Those who thought the world’s problems were mainly the fault of individuals (i.e., those who blamed the victims) were also reluctant to favor social reform efforts. In contrast, people who recognized the role of social arrangements as part of their broad explanatory frameworks tended to be supportive of reform efforts, including personal involvement in nonconventional lifestyles. And those who devalued the "givenness" of reality through mystical and other transcendent experiences also seemed willing to countenance reform and alternative lifestyles.

Much the same patterns were evident in the study of commune members and the San Francisco study focusing on racial attitudes. Despite difficulties in conceptualizing and measuring the idea of broad meaning systems or broad explanatory frameworks, the studies seemed to demonstrate the importance of such cognitive perspectives. The assumption’ behind all these studies was that general overarching frames of reference establish the context in which more specific activities are perceived to have meaning and thus are likely to shape the salience and direction of these activities. Insofar as this assumption seems to be empirically validated, Berger’s emphasis on the importance of sacred canopies gains additional support.

His idea of "plausibility structures" has also been employed in several research studies. One that was based on a survey of mainline church members, for example, suggested that identification with the local community served as an important plausibility structure for traditional religious tenets. 13 Furthermore, those who made such localistic identifications were considerably more likely than "cosmopolitans" to espouse traditional religious beliefs (controlling for a variety of other factors) and to allow these beliefs to influence their thinking on racial and social questions as well.

Another study examined the effect of social networks, as a kind of plausibility structure, on components of symbolic universes among college students. 14 Arguing that social networks among like-minded students constitute a plausibility structure of the kind Berger had discussed, the authors of the study demonstrated that traditional Christian worldviews seemed to be both more salient and internally more consistent than other worldviews in large part as a result of the fact that Christian students were more likely to have cultivated social ties with other Christians.

More recently, the idea of plausibility structures has been employed in several studies concerned with the question of how American evangelicals are able to maintain their traditional religious beliefs within the secular, pluralistic context of modern culture. One study, drawing on national survey data, indicated that evangelicals tend to be relatively isolated from the main sources of secular influence (e.g., higher education, professional careers, urban or suburban residence), thus permitting them to retain their plausibility structures more or less intact — although other modes of cultural accommodation were also evident. 15

Another study sampled students at nine evangelical colleges in an attempt to determine how effective these institutions were in providing plausibility structures for evangelical beliefs. By comparing the six campuses that required statements of faith from all entering students with the three campuses that did not, the study was able to test whether a more "insular" setting actually served better to protect the plausibility of traditional beliefs. The results tended in part to confirm this supposition. Evangelical beliefs both were higher and remained stronger over the four years of college in the more insular settings.

However, a comparison sample of students drawn from a secular university showed that, although evangelicalism was much rarer, evangelical students were able to maintain their convictions in this setting as well. They did so mainly by adopting a more defensive stance toward the secular culture and by developing a relatively strong social and political ideology that protected their religious beliefs. Thus, the general importance of plausibility structures was affirmed, but the study suggested that religious plausibility can be upheld in a secular context as well as in isolation from it. 16

On the whole, the idea of religion as sacred canopy has not yet been tested sufficiently to suggest that its merits outweigh those of several other contending approaches in the sociology of religion. Indeed, the basic ideas tend not to be at a level of specificity that would allow such tests to be made. But Berger and others working in the same tradition have made an important general contribution to reorienting research in the sociology of religion in recent decades. A view of the sacred has been posited that goes well beyond such conventional religious practices as church attendance and prayer. The emphasis on symbolic universes has placed the study of religion in a broader cultural context, suggesting means by which private experiences of the sacred, as well as functional trade-offs between religion and secular symbol systems, can be rediscovered. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that this orientation has been particularly valued by scholars interested in exploring the changing face of contemporary religion.

  Critical Considerations

The view of religion as a sacred canopy is broadly informed by theoretical tradition, is generally supported by empirical research, and is sufficiently sophisticated to embrace the major variants and components of religious expression. Perhaps ironically, it is an ingenious blend of social science and theological philosophy that has found favor with both the detractors and defenders of modern religion. Those who deny the validity of religion point enthusiastically to Berger’s call for "methodological atheism," for example, and to his argument that religion is a socially constructed view of reality that depends to a large extent on arbitrary networks of social interaction for its plausibility. Friends of religion, in contrast, find support for their views in Berger’s criticisms of the limitations of everyday reality, in his argument for the role of overarching canopies of meaning, and in his openness to the possibility of "signals of transcendence" that break through the sheltering humdrum of everyday life.

On balance, Berger’s theoretical perspective has provided a modern apologetic for the value of religion, arguing not from theological tradition but from the secular premises of social science that humans cannot live by the bread of everyday reality alone. Insofar as meaning is contextual, the meaning of life ultimately depends on a different kind of symbol — not amenable to empirical falsification — which evokes a sense of the ground of being. There is always a tendency in the social sciences to debunk religion by positing its origins in human interaction, but Berger at least seems to have discovered a way of rescuing religion from this scourge.

For all its flexibility and its attractiveness to both the proponents and opponents of religion, the idea of a sacred canopy is not amenable to just any interpretation. It rests on a distinctive perspective and shows biases that account for both its strengths and its weaknesses. These biases need to be understood and evaluated in order to gain a proper appreciation of what this approach to understanding the sacred can do best and also to gain greater sensitivity to its limitations. Three issues in particular merit consideration: the role of plausibility structures, the role of subjectivity, and the role of rational cognition.

Plausibility Structures

The idea of plausibility structures has provided sociologists with their best entrée to the study of religion within the perspective outlined by Peter Berger. This is the concept that gives social factors an influential role in the shaping of religious convictions. Those who wish to see religion as an emergent or ultimate truth or as an autonomous cultural system shaped strictly by its own inner structure and meanings charge that the idea of plausibility structures opens the door for a type of sociological reductionism that explains away the reality of religion by attributing it to social conditions.

There is some basis for this charge, it appears, given the fact that Berger seems to treat plausibility structures as somehow prior to or more basic than the religious beliefs they make plausible. He seems to treat religious beliefs as objects that need to be explained and to introduce plausibility structures into the discussion without questioning their origin or the conditions maintaining them. One is led to wonder where plausibility structures come from, whether certain symbols encourage interaction more than others, whether the type of interaction possible depends on the type of discourse available, and what makes a plausibility structure itself plausible.

In contrast to the authors of many of the classical theoretical approaches to religion — Marx, Freud, and even Durkheim — Berger seems to give greater autonomy to the functioning of religious symbols and, indeed, suggests an interesting means of circumventing the problem of reductionism while giving social conditions a legitimate role. By setting his, discussion in the context of a dialectic (externalization, objectification, internalization), he has in effect stressed the importance of social interaction for the production and maintenance of religion but at the same time he has recognized the independent capacity of religion to exist as a cultural system and to shape individual thoughts and attitudes.

Sociologists can more tellingly object that plausibility structures may not go far enough toward specifying the importance of social conditions as an influence on religion. Social interaction — "conversation" — is surely important in maintaining religious realities, but putting the matter in these terms leaves the influence of social conditions largely indeterminate. For example, when research finds that Christian friendships reinforce Christian convictions, the question still remains why some people choose Christian friends and others do not. Ideally, theory would suggest which kinds of social contexts are likely to be the most or least supportive of certain beliefs. Berger’s perspective is, in short, a "weak" form of sociology-of-knowledge reasoning. It specifies only the most general connection between social conditions and beliefs. One gains the impression that any kind of conversational setting can sustain any kind of belief. Perhaps so, but that conclusion flies in the face of a long tradition of sociological research that has shown relationships between specific types of beliefs and variations in social class, region, family structure, and political system.

In addition, sociologists can object that the concept of plausibility structures as venues of discourse and interaction diminishes the importance of other kinds of social resources for maintaining religion. In a strict free market of ideas among autonomous and relatively equal individuals, discourse may be the decisive factor in shaping beliefs. But most religions have long histories as established organizations in which money, power, and professional expertise play an important role. Behind the scenes — making possible the very situations in which conversation about religion can happen — are massive ecclesiastical bureaucracies, hours and hours of administrative labor, vast fund-raising efforts, complex bookkeeping schemes, training programs, and patronage and other distribution agencies, all of which play their part in maintaining religious realities. Much of the literature on plausibility structures has missed the importance of these broader resources.

Subjectivity

The question of subjectivity raises a second set of issues. Part of the intuitive appeal of this approach to religion is that it begins with the individual and stresses his or her subjective requirement for meaning in everyday life. Unpersuaded by rational-logical arguments about the existence of God, the student can find in this perspective an existential basis for seeking broader meaning in life, one solution to which may be the sacred canopy of religion. At the heart of this approach are the individual’s concerns about questions of suffering, purpose in life, coping with grief or ecstasy, and so on. Indeed, the emphasis on reality construction itself stresses the perspective of the individual and the manner in which the outside world is filtered through his or her world-view to become meaningful. This emphasis may provide a refreshing contrast to sociological approaches concerned with broad generalizations about culture and society — approaches in which the individual actor seems to have been lost. Yet there are costs associated with attaching this much importance to the individual.

The most obvious cost is that broader social arrangements may be neglected. To his credit, Berger’s own work often balances discussions of individual meaning with discussions of the legitimation of social institutions. However, the focus is often more on the ways in which individuals perceive institutions than on questions of institutional relations themselves. No theory need cover the entire range of social realities, of course, but it is worth noting that sociologists seem to have gained more mileage from this framework for their considerations of individual beliefs than for analyses of large-scale institutions.

Another limitation hinges on emphasizing the subjective when developing empirical generalizations. Critics of this perspective have sometimes pointed to its lack of testable hypotheses as well as its apparent failure to have produced a more substantial body of empirical research. Some of these criticisms are misdirected inasmuch as the perspective is intended to be more a metatheory of human nature than a set of testable hypotheses. Nevertheless, it does appear that the framework has received more use for appreciating religion than for studying it. And this reception has been influenced by the framework’s focus on individual meaning. Thus, studies such as the ones cited earlier have often been stymied by problems of how practically to assess such inherently private matters as questions of individual meaning. Little has been accomplished, it appears, other than demonstrating that individuals generally do have an interest in the topic of meaning and that they draw on a variety of thematic traditions in their attempts to construct meaning. Consequently, it is not surprising, as we shall see in the next two chapters, that many approaches have turned away from subjective meaning toward questions of symbolism and discourse.

An emphasis on symbolism and discourse offers a way of identifying observable, objective materials for analysis. The subjective emphasis on reality construction and personal meaning has pointed toward inner moods and motivations — phenomena that elude the usual methods of documentation and verification in the social sciences. Moreover, the idiosyncratic and fluid character of personal meaning has defied the very logic of seeking social scientific generalizations. Focusing on language and discourse, while not providing an escape from the hermeneutic circle or a pathway back to positivism, has at least paid high dividends in fields such as linguistics and artificial intelligence, and this focus seems to be capturing the interest of an increasing number of theologians and sociologists of religion as well.

Rational Cognition

Finally, the role of rational cognition in religion presents issues of concern. The main issue here is difficult to pin down precisely, but it has to do with the impression one gains from reading Berger that people act like amateur philosophers in constructing their religious views. He seems to suggest, for example, that people approach tragedies and grief not so much by grieving but by raising abstract questions about the causes of suffering in the world. And while he sometimes mentions religious experiences and rituals, he places principal emphasis on a broad philosophical system — the sacred canopy — that answers one’s questions about life.

This issue can be sharpened by contrasting Berger’s approach with that of Robert N. Bellah. 17 The comparison is a natural one, since both start with similar presuppositions about symbolism, everyday reality, and the importance of meaning. Yet when it comes to religion, Bellah seems to draw a distinction between rational-logical discourse and the more intuitive, "iconic" symbolism he believes to be more characteristic of religion. Iconic symbols, he writes, "are nonobjective symbols that express the feelings, values, and hopes of subjects, or that organize and regulate the flow of interaction between subjects and objects or even point to the context or ground of that whole." 18

Like Berger, Bellah has in mind the need for an overarching sense of meaning, but the symbols Bellah discusses seem not so exclusively to consist of "theoretical traditions," as Berger describes them, but of anecdotes, images, pictures, connotatively rich names and places, rituals, and personal experiences. Zen Buddhism seems to fit Bellah’s scheme, but not Berger’s.

The problem is not one of deciding in favor of Bellah’s emphasis or Berger’s (plenty of evidence exists to support the importance of both types of symbolism in most religions). But there is a fundamental ambiguity in Berger’s discussion of symbolic universes that has perhaps made his view of religion seem more rationalistic than it should. In defining symbolic universes Berger contrasts them with simpler levels of legitimation such as proverbs, maxims, and theories. But the contrast actually runs along two dimensions, not one.

On one dimension, symbolic universes are distinguished as the most encompassing: they embrace and integrate all segments of reality, all institutional or biographic spheres, rather than being limited to a single or narrow aspect of reality. On another dimension, though, symbolic universes are distinguished as being the most theoretically elaborate: they consist of whole systems or traditions rather than single theories or even simpler, more discrete statements such as an explanation or proverb. These are distinct dimensions, and it may be useful to draw a sharp contrast between the two.

It would appear that a relatively simple statement that leaves unsaid much of what it implies ("Jesus loves me") or a word such as luck that exists in the absence of any sophisticated theoretical tradition could evoke a sense of the meaning of life as much as an elaborate philosophical system. Even an icon or mandala might evoke a sense of encompassing meaning. In any of these instances cognition is involved, of course. But the meaning evoked may not consist so much of an orderly, systematic accounting of life as of a simple intuitive sense that life as such has meaning. With this important modification, it may be easier to think of the sacred canopy, then, as something other than a purely rational or cognitive philosophy of life.

Looking Backward

Returning then to the question of how the perspective on religion set forth in The Sacred Canopy is to be evaluated, given more than two decades of hindsight, it would appear evident that this perspective still contains much of importance to the contemporary situation. Written at a time when it appeared to many that the churches and synagogues were becoming increasingly irrelevant to the major questions facing contemporary society, this book offered an argument that explained why religion (in one form or another) would continue to be discovered and rediscovered over and over again. It predicted that the sacred would remain a vital feature of modern times.

And that prediction has proved accurate again and again in recent decades. A whole generation was reared on campus unrest in which religious experimentation played a significant role; then the phenomenon of an avowedly "born-again" president, Jimmy Carter, brought a different form of religion onto the national scene; and this was followed by religious resurgence in places as distant culturally and geographically as Tehran and Lynchburg, Virginia. All these events have underscored the abiding relevance of the sacred in contemporary society.

But if the perspective offered in The Sacred Canopy was largely accurate in predicting the continuing importance of the sacred, the social sciences have moved subtly away from some of the assumptions on which this perspective was based. There is in Berger’s discussion of religion and everyday life a courageous optimism, despite the existential despair in which humanity is assumed to live, a courageous optimism that the social sciences will reshape and reinvigorate our understanding of ourselves. There is a faith that greater understanding of the social sciences will give us renewed hope as individuals and a clearer sense of mastery as a people over the quest for guiding values.

That optimism no longer seems to characterize the social sciences to any prominent degree. Instead, it seems, technical concerns increasingly set the disciplines’ agendas, replacing the quest for fundamental values. Methods and data accumulate at a rapid pace, but the enthusiasm for a broader vision in the social sciences seems to have waned. It is as if the social sciences have been captured by their own version of everyday reality.

Recognizing the extent to which any conception of everyday reality depends on larger frameworks to give it meaning, though, is the first step toward correcting that imbalance. Indeed, the social sciences themselves seem to be rediscovering the sacred in unexpected places, among which are the sanctuaries of symbolism and religious discourse.

1. See Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967).

2. According to the Social Science Citation Index, more than 250 publications have referred to Berger’s book, and the total number of references to related works ranges much higher. Berger himself has made extensive use of his original formulation in subsequent works on religion such as A Rumor of Angels (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969) and The Heretical Imperative (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979).

3. For a discussion of this and other examples, see Peter Farb, Word Play (New York: Knopf, 1973).

4. See Jerome S. Bruner, Rose R. Oliver, and Patricia M. Greenfield, Studies in Cognitive Growth (New York: Wiley, 1966).

5. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966), p. 5.

6. Berger, The Sacred Canopy, p. 51.

7. Berger, The Sacred Canopy, p. 33.

8. See Robert Wuthnow, The Consciousness Reformation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976).

9. Self-Esteem Survey (Princeton: The Gallup Organization, 1982).

10. See Richard A. Apostle, Charles Y. Glock, Thomas Piazza, and Marijean Suelzle, The Anatomy of Racial Attitudes (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983), especially p. 207.

11. See Angela A. Aidala, "The Consciousness Reformation Revisited," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23 (1984): 44-59.

12. See, e.g., William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark, "The Consciousness Reformation Reconsidered," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 20(1981):1-15.

13. Wade Clark Roof, Community and Commitment (New York: Elsevier, 1978).

14. Bainbridge and Stark, "The Consciousness Reformation Reconsidered."

15. See James Davison Hunter, American Evangelicalism (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1983).

16. Phillip E. Hammond and James Davison Hunter, "On Maintaining Plausibility: The Worldview of Evangelical College Students," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23 (1984): 221-38.

17. I draw here particularly on Bellah’s book Beyond Belief (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).

18. Bellah, Beyond Belief p. 252.

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Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

This sacred life, with norman wirzba.

This week's episode of Spotlights features  Norman Wirzba, PhD , the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Theology at Duke University, and Senior Fellow at Duke's Kenan Institute for Ethics. He discusses his new book, This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which gives a deep philosophical and religious articulation of humanity's identity and vocation by rooting people in a symbiotic, meshwork world that is saturated with sacred gifts. We reflect on numerous topics, including the Anthropocene, transhumanism, food, faith, farming, hope, creativity, and much more.

Watch this episode below, or listen to it here .

An archive of previous episodes can be found here , with audio versions available here .

Life and Dignity of the Human Person

Genesis 1:26-31          God created man and woman in his image.      

Deuteronomy 10:17-19            God loves the orphan, the widow, and the stranger.        

Psalms 139:13-16              God formed each of us and knows us intimately.        

Proverbs 22:2            The Lord is the maker of both rich and poor.

Luke 10:25-37            The  good Samaritan recognized the dignity in the other and cared for his life.

John 4:1-42     Jesus  broke with societal and religious customs to honor the dignity of the Samaritan  woman.

Romans 12: 9-18            Love one another, contribute to the needs of others, live peaceably with all.

1 Corinthians 3:16            You are holy, for you are God’s temple and God dwells in you.

Galatians 3:27-28            All Christians are one in Christ Jesus.

James 2:1-8            Honor  the poor.

1 John 3: 1-2            See  what love the Father has for us, that we should be called Children of God.

1 John 4:7-12            Let us  love one another because love is from God.

Tradition  

“The world exists for everyone, because all of us were born with the same dignity. Differences of color, religion, talent, place of birth or residence, and so many others, cannot be used to justify the privileges of some over the rights of all. As a community, we have an obligation to ensure that every person lives with dignity and has sufficient opportunities for his or her integral development.” (Pope Francis, On Fraternity and Social Friendship  [ Fratelli Tutt i], no. 118) 

“The dignity of others is to be respected in all circumstances, not because that dignity is something we have invented or imagined, but because human beings possess an intrinsic worth superior to that of material objects and contingent situations. This requires that they be treated differently. That every human being possesses an inalienable dignity is a truth that corresponds to human nature apart from all cultural change. For this reason, human beings have the same inviolable dignity in every age of history and no one can consider himself or herself authorized by particular situations to deny this conviction or to act against it.” (Pope Francis, On Fraternity and Social Friendship [ Fratelli Tutt i], no. 213) 

“Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection. We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in a world where some revel, spend with abandon and live only for the latest consumer goods, even as others look on from afar, living their entire lives in abject poverty.” (Pope Francis, Rejoice and Be Glad [ Gaudete et Exsultate ], no. 101) 

“Human beings too are creatures of this world, enjoying a right to life and happiness, and endowed with unique dignity. So we cannot fail to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture.” (Pope Francis,  On Care for Our Common Home  [ Laudato Si' ], no. 43). 

"When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected." (Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [ Laudato Si' ], no. 117) "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape. Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a 'throw away' culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society's underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the 'exploited' but the outcast, the 'leftovers'." (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel [ Evangelii Gaudium ], no. 53)

"The dignity  of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that  economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive  and morally unacceptable manner." (Pope Benedict XVI, Charity  in Truth [ Caritas in Veritate ], no. 32)

Human persons are  willed by God; they are imprinted with God's image. Their dignity does not come  from the work they do, but from the persons they are. (See St. John Paul II, On the Hundredth Year [ Centesimus annus] , no. 11)

"The  basis for all that the Church believes about the moral dimensions of economic  life is its vision of the transcendent worth -- the sacredness -- of human  beings. The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is  the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured.

All  human beings, therefore, are ends to be served by the institutions that make up  the economy, not means to be exploited for more narrowly defined goals. Human personhood must be respected with a reverence that is religious. When we deal  with each other, we should do so with the sense of awe that arises in the  presence of something holy and sacred. For that is what human beings are: we  are created in the image of God ( Gn 1:27 )." (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All , no. 28)

"Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of  the Word of God who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14 ), is entrusted  to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore every threat to human dignity and  life must necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart; it cannot but affect  her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God,  and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the  world and to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15 )." (St. John Paul II, The  Gospel of Life [ Evangelium vitae ] , no. 3)

"As explicitly formulated, the precept 'You shall not kill' is strongly negative: it indicates the extreme limit which can never be  exceeded. Implicitly, however, it encourages a positive attitude of absolute  respect for life; it leads to the promotion of life and to progress along the  way of a love which gives, receives and serves." (St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [ Evangelium vitae ], no. 54)

"This teaching rests on one basic principle: individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every  social institution. That is necessarily so, for men are by nature social beings." (St. John XXIII, Mother and Teacher [ Mater et Magistra ] , no. 219)

"There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions  of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel: 'Their equal  dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane  conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and  peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against  social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international  peace'." ( Catechism of the Catholic Church , no. 1938 citing Gaudium et Spes, 29)

"Whatever  insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary  imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and  children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are  infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who  practice them than those who suffer from the injury." (Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World [ Gaudium et Spes ], no. 27)

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"A VOICE DEMONIC AND PROUD": SHIFTING THE GEOGRAPHIES OF BLAME IN ASSOTTO SAINT'S "SACRED LIFE: ART AND AIDS"

2020, AIDS and the Distribution of Crisis

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This essay offers an intellectual history of the armed mobilizations that traversed the highlands and valleys of the Dominican Republic's southern borderlands during the last decades of the nineteenth century, finding at their very heart a spiritually grounded defense of autonomy within an embattled geography of community and freedom. The residents of these highlands and the San Juan Valley mounted repeated guerrilla movements against the island's two capitals in service of defending the whole island's independence ; unlike borderlands struggles elsewhere, residents forged these campaigns long before any capital transformations encroached on their own territory. The essay analyzes the spiritual, political, and geographic logic of self-rule that these individuals invoked and also, critically, the gendered cost of violence that these campaigns fostered. The success of these anticolonial struggles highlights the profound fugitive history of the center island, just as it rewrites narratives of nationalism in the present day.

Dasha A Chapman , Erin L Durban , Mario LaMothe

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Emerging in the 1980s, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) ravaged minoritized communities across the country and in the process transformed the United States. In this “Interchange,” the writers focus primarily on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities and communities of color, groups that make up the majority of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States, as a way to explore social, cultural, and political battles over recognizing the significance of AIDS and for access to treatment and prevention. The epidemic, and those affected by it, transformed public discussion of sexuality and race, poverty, and public health. But despite those radical changes, HIV/AIDS has rarely been included in the history of the post-1960s era. Working with Jennifer Brier, the JAH brought together nine scholars to discuss how the history of HIV/AIDS intersects with the history of the United States. Participants engaged in a far-ranging conversation that interweaves histories of sexuality, race, gender, medicine, social activism, and media, and explores how HIV/AIDS has been addressed, and ignored, in historical scholarship of the late twentieth century. As the first feature-length piece dedicated to the history of HIV/AIDS published by the Journal, this “Interchange” is able to delve deeply into many critical aspects of the history of HIV/AIDS but misses many others. The JAH and all the contributors hope this piece sparks and sustains new historical research across the many axes of the field of U.S. history. The JAH is indebted to all of the participants for sharing their thoughts on this subject. JONATHAN BELL is a professor of U.S. history at University College London. He is the author of The Liberal State on Trial: The Cold War and American Politics in the Truman Years (2004) and California Crucible: The Forging of Modern American Liberalism (2012). His current project, “Unhealthy Bodies: Health Care and the Rights Revolutions since the Sixties,” examines civil rights activism and health care politics to explore the sexual and gender dynamics of U.S. health care. Readers may contact Bell at [email protected]. DARIUS BOST is an assistant professor of sexuality studies at San Francisco State University. He is the author of the forthcoming Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence. He is the coeditor of a special issue in the Black Scholar titled “Black Masculinities and the Matter of Vulnerability.” Readers may contact Bost at [email protected]. JENNIFER BRIER is an associate professor of history and gender and women's studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis (2009) and the curator of “Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture,” a traveling exhibition for the National Library of Medicine. She currently directs a public history project on HIV/AIDS called “I'm Still Surviving: A Women's History of HIV/AIDS in the United States.” Brier was the guest editor for this Interchange. Readers may contact Brier at [email protected]. JULIO CAPÓ JR. is an assistant professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 (2017). He is currently writing a book that places the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in the long history of violence, erasure, and displacement of queer Latina/o/x communites. Readers may contact Capó at [email protected]. JIH-FEI CHENG is an assistant professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Scripps College. He is working on a book tentatively titled “AIDS and Its Afterlives: Race, Gender, and the Queer Radical Imagination.” He worked in HIV/AIDS social services and was a board member of Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment. 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Readers may contact Hanhardt at [email protected]. EMILY K. HOBSON is an assistant professor of history and in the program in Gender, Race, and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the author of Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left (2016) and is currently working on a second book that explores the connection between AIDS activism and prison radicalism in the 1980s and 1990s. She is on the governing board of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History. Readers may contact Hobson at [email protected]. DAN ROYLES is an assistant professor of history at Florida International University. He is the author of the forthcoming book To Make the Wounded Whole: The Political Culture of African American AIDS Activism. He is currently working on an oral history of African American AIDS activists and is building an online archive of materials relating to HIV/AIDS in black communities. 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Jennifer Brier , Darius Bost , Julio Capó, Jr. , Jih-Fei Cheng , Dan Royles

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How Spirituality Can Benefit Your Health and Well-Being

Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Megan Monahan is a certified meditation instructor and has studied under Dr. Deepak Chopra. She is also the author of the book, Don't Hate, Meditate.

What Is Spirituality?

Spirituality vs. religion.

• How to Practice

Potential Pitfalls

Spirituality is the broad concept of a belief in something beyond the self. It strives to answer questions about the meaning of life, how people are connected to each other, truths about the universe, and other mysteries of human existence.

Spirituality offers a worldview that suggests there is more to life than just what people experience on a sensory and physical level. Instead, it suggests that there is something greater that connects all beings to each other and to the universe itself.

It may involve religious traditions centering on the belief in a higher power. It can also involve a holistic belief in an individual connection to others and the world as a whole.

Spirituality has been a source of comfort and relief from stress for multitudes of people. While people use many different paths to find God or a higher power, ​research has shown that those who are more religious or spiritual and use their spirituality to cope with challenges in life experience many benefits to their health and well-being.

Signs of Spirituality

Spirituality is not a single path or belief system. There are many ways to experience spirituality and the benefits of a spiritual experience. How you define spirituality will vary. For some people, it's the belief in a higher power or a specific religious practice.

For others, it may involve experiencing a sense of connection to a higher state or a sense of inter-connectedness with the rest of humanity and nature. Some signs of spirituality can include:

• Asking deep questions about topics such as suffering or what happens after death
• Deepening connections with other people
• Experiencing compassion and empathy for others
• Experiencing feelings of interconnectedness
• Feelings of awe and wonder
• Seeking happiness beyond material possessions or other external rewards
• Seeking meaning and purpose
• Wanting to make the world a better place

Not everyone experiences or expresses spirituality in the same way. Some people may seek spiritual experiences in every aspect of their lives, while others may be more likely to have these feelings under specific conditions or in certain locations.

For example, some people may be more likely to have spiritual experiences in churches or other religious temples, while others might have these feelings when they're out enjoying nature.

Types of Spirituality

There are many different types of spirituality. Some examples of how people get in touch with their own spirituality include:

• Meditation or quiet time
• New age spirituality
• Service to their community
• Spending time in nature
• Spiritual retreats

Other people express their spirituality through religious traditions such as:

• Christianity

It is important to remember that there are many other spiritual traditions that exist throughout the world, including traditional African and Indigenous spiritual practices. Such spiritual practices can be particularly important to groups of people who have been subjected to the effects of colonialism.

Though there can be a lot of overlap between people who are spiritual and people who are religious, below are some key points to help differentiate spirituality vs. religion.

Can be practiced individually

Doesn't have to adhere to a specific set of rules

Often focuses on a personal journey of discovering what is meaningful in life

Often practiced in a community

Usually based on a specific set of rules and customs

Often focuses on the belief in deities or gods, religious texts, and tradition

Uses for Spirituality

There are a number of different reasons why people may turn to spirituality, including but not limited to:

• To find purpose and meaning : Exploring spirituality can help people find answers to philosophical questions they have such as "What is the meaning of life?" and "What purpose does my life serve?"
• To cope with feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety : Spiritual experiences can be helpful when coping with the stresses of life. 
• To restore hope and optimism : Spirituality can help people develop a more hopeful outlook on life.
• To find a sense of community and support : Because spiritual traditions often involve organized religions or groups , becoming a part of such a group can serve as an important source of social support .

Impact of Spirituality

While specific spiritual views are a matter of faith, research has demonstrated some of the benefits of spirituality and spiritual activity. The results may surprise no one who has found comfort in their religious or spiritual views, but they are definitely noteworthy in that they demonstrate in a scientific way that these activities do have benefits for many people.

The following are a few more of the many positive findings related to spirituality and health:

• Research has shown that religion and spirituality can help people cope with the effects of everyday stress. One study found that everyday spiritual experiences helped older adults better cope with negative feelings, and enhanced positive feelings.
• Research shows that older women are more grateful to God than older men, and they receive greater ​stress-buffering health effects due to this gratitude.
• According to research, those with an intrinsic religious orientation, regardless of gender, exhibited less physiological reactivity toward stress than those with an extrinsic religious orientation. Those who were intrinsically oriented dedicated their lives to God or a "higher power," while the extrinsically oriented ones used religion for external ends like making friends or increasing community social standing.

This, along with other research, demonstrates that there may be tangible and lasting benefits to maintaining involvement with a spiritual community. This involvement, along with the gratitude that can accompany spirituality, can be a buffer against stress and is linked to greater levels of physical health.

Dedication to God or a higher power translated into less stress reactivity, greater feelings of well-being, and ultimately even a decreased fear of death.

People who feel comfortable and comforted using spirituality as a coping mechanism for stress can rest assured that there's even more evidence that this is a good idea for them. Prayer works for young and old alike. Prayer and spirituality have been linked to:

• Better health
• Greater psychological well-being
• Less depression  
• Less hypertension
• Less stress, even during difficult times  
• More positive feelings
• Superior ability to handle stress

How to Practice Spirituality

Whether you are rediscovering a forgotten spiritual path, reinforcing your commitment to an already well-established one, or wanting to learn more about spirituality for beginners, there are countless ways to start exploring your spiritual side and help improve your well-being.

Spirituality is a very personal experience, and everyone’s spiritual path may be unique. Research shows, however, that some spiritual stress relief strategies have been helpful to many, regardless of faith. Some things you can do to start exploring spirituality include:

• Pay attention to how you are feeling : Part of embracing spirituality means also embracing what it means to be human, both the good and the bad. 
• Focus on others : Opening your heart, feeling empathy, and helping others are important aspects of spirituality.
• Meditate : Try spending 10 to 15 minutes each morning engaged in some form of meditation .
• Practice gratitude : Start a gratitude journal and record what you are grateful for each day. This can be a great reminder of what is most important to you and what brings you the greatest happiness.
• Try mindfulness : By becoming more mindful, you can become more aware and appreciative of the present. Mindfulness encourages you to be less judgmental (both of yourself and others) and focus more on the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or future.

Press Play for Advice on Being Human

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One potential pitfall of spirituality is a phenomenon known as spiritual bypassing . This involves a tendency to use spirituality as a way to avoid or sidestep problems, emotions, or conflicts.

For example, rather than apologizing for some type of emotional wound you have caused someone else, you might bypass the problem by simply excusing it and saying that "everything happens for a reason" or suggesting that the other person just needs to "focus on the positive."

Spirituality can enrich your life and lead to a number of benefits, but it is important to be cautious to not let spiritual ideals lead to pitfalls such as dogmatism or a reason to ignore the needs of others.

Akbari M, Hossaini SM. The relationship of spiritual health with quality of life, mental health, and burnout: The mediating role of emotional regulation . Iran J Psychiatry . 2018;13(1):22-31. PMID:29892314

Whitehead BR, Bergeman CS. Coping with daily stress: Differential role of spiritual experience on daily positive and negative affect .  J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci . 2012;67(4):456-459. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr136

Manning LK. Spirituality as a lived experience: Exploring the essence of spirituality for women in late life . Int J Aging Hum Dev . 2012;75(2):95-113. doi:10.2190/AG.75.2.a

McMahon, BT, Biggs HC. Examining spirituality and intrinsic religious orientation as a means of coping with exam anxiety . Society, Health & Vulnerability . 2012;3(1). doi:10.3402/vgi.v3i0.14918

Johnson KA. Prayer: A helpful aid in recovery from depression . J Relig Health . 2018;57(6):2290-2300. doi:10.1007/s10943-018-0564-8

Wachholtz AB, Sambamthoori U. National trends in prayer use as a coping mechanism for depression: Changes from 2002 to 2007 . J Relig Health . 2013;52(4):1356-68. doi:10.1007/s10943-012-9649-y

Gonçalves JP, Lucchetti G, Menezes PR, Vallada H. Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials . Psychol Med . 2015;45(14):2937-49. doi:10.1017/S0033291715001166

Arrey AE, Bilsen J, Lacor P, Deschepper R. Spirituality/religiosity: A cultural and psychological resource among sub-Saharan African migrant women with HIV/AIDS in Belgium .  PLoS One . 2016;11(7):e0159488. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159488

Paul Victor CG, Treschuk JV. Critical literature review on the definition clarity of the concept of faith, religion, and spirituality . J Holist Nurs. 2019;38(1):107-113. doi:10.1177/0898010119895368

By Elizabeth Scott, PhD Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

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All Life Is Sacred

Father Richard writes of the sacred nature of all life:   

Almost every religion’s history begins with one massive misperception; namely, making a fatal distinction between the sacred and the profane. Religions often put all their emphasis on creating sacred places, sacred time, and sacred actions. While I fully appreciate the need for this, it unfortunately leaves most of life “un-sacred.”  

In authentic mystical moments, any clear distinction between sacred and profane quickly falls apart. Afterward, one knows all the world is sacred because most of the time such moments happen in so-called secular settings. For examples, look at the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Elijah, Mary, and Jesus. Few, if any, of their “sacred” moments happened in “holy” places, but simply wherever they were. Our Franciscan official motto is Deus Meus et Omnia , “My God and all things.” Once we recognize the Christ as the universal truth of matter and spirit working together as one, then everything is holy. Once we surrender to this Christ mystery in our oh-so-ordinary selves and bodies, we begin to see it in every other ordinary place too.  

We don’t have to go to sacred places to pray or wait for holy days for good things to happen. We can pray always, and everything that happens is potentially sacred if we allow it to be. Once we can accept that God is in all circumstances, and that God can and will use even bad situations for good, then everything becomes an occasion for good and an occasion for God. “ This is the day God has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).  

Our task is to find the good, the true, and the beautiful in everything—even, and most especially, in the problematic. The bad is never strong enough to counteract the good. We can most easily learn this through some form of contemplative practice. In contemplation we learn to trust our Vital Center over all the passing snags of emotions and obsessive thinking. Once we deepen contact with our strong and loving soul, which is also the Indwelling Spirit, we are no longer pulled to and fro with every passing feeling. This is the peace that Jesus gives, a peace that nothing else can give, and that no one can take from us (see John 14:27).  

Divine Incarnation took the form of an Indwelling Presence in every human soul and surely all creatures in some rudimentary way. Ironically, our human freedom gives us the ability to stop such a train and refuse to jump on board our own life. Angels, animals, trees, water, and yes, bread and wine seem to fully accept and enjoy their wondrous fate. Only we humans resist and deny our core identities. We can cause great havoc and thus must be somehow boundaried and contained. The only way we ourselves can refuse to jump onto the train of life is by any negative game of exclusion or unlove—even of ourselves. Everything belongs, including us.  

References:   

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Essential Teachings on Love , selected by Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 225–226, 227. 

Image credit: A path from one week to the next— Izzy Spitz, Untitled . CAC Staff, Untitled . Izzy Spitz, Untitled . Watercolor. Used with permission. Click here to enlarge image . 

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Highlighted Episode: This Sacred Life: Hope in an Era of Climate Crisis, with guest Norman Wirzba, Duke Divinity School

This week we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination Podcast. Norman Wirzba is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke Divinity School. The author of several books, he’s also the director of a multi-year, Henry Luce Foundation-funded project entitled “Facing the Anthropocene.”  

On this episode, Matthew Wickman of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute, speaks with Norman about humankind’s stewardship of the natural world as delineated in his powerful and sobering book, This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World .

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The Sanctity of Life

“In the beginning God created….” All human life is created by and from the hands of God and is therefore precious. Man and Woman are created in the image of God 1 and as a result are holy unto Him. From the moment of conception, God forms and fashions us into unique creations and He controls our destinies. 2 As image bearers of God, Man and Woman have inherent worth. Mankind’s worth is further demonstrated by the incarnation of Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death and resurrection so that we may receive forgiveness for our sins and be reconciled to Him. 3  Our bodies are described as a temple for the Holy Spirit, that is to be presented as a holy and living sacrifice. 4  We are called to honor children as a blessing 5 , honor each other in relationships 6 , respect our elders 7 , and hold all life as sacred. 8

At Fellowship Bible Church, we believe that human life possesses a beautiful sanctity which is endowed by our awesome Creator-King. This belief in the sanctity of life leads us to specific stances on a number of issues, including those below.

Application Points

Fellowship Bible Church soundly and completely believes that abortion is the murder of a defenseless child who is created in God’s image. 9 This encompasses any intentional termination of a pregnancy, including the use of abortifacient drugs (i.e. “morning after pill”). To borrow from a statement of the Christian Medical and Dental Association on the moral worth of human life, “The moral worth of human beings is absolute and eternal. God has created humans in his image; therefore, human life has intrinsic moral worth.”

To further borrow from this beautifully written statement:

“The beginning and continuity of the moral worth of human life are concurrent with human life itself. Human worth begins with the one-cell human embryo and lasts lifelong. A living human being is an integrated organism with the genetic endowment of the species Homo sapiens. This includes the inherent active biological disposition for ordered growth and development in a continuous and seamless maturation process. It also includes the potential to manifest such fundamental traits as rationality, self-awareness, communication, and relationship with God, other human beings, and the environment. Thus a human being, despite the expression of different and more mature secondary characteristics, has genetic and ontological identity and continuity throughout all stages of development from formation of the human being until death. Human embryos are not “potential” human beings; rather, they are human beings with potential. Moral worth is not dependent on potential.”  Read the full statement from Christian Medical and Dental Association Here .

Although the culture around us would prefer to make exceptions to such a stance, any exceptions inherently place more value on one life over another, which is contrary to scripture. 10  Having said that abortion is murder of a human and thus sin, the Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ died and rose as a propitiation for all sin. 11  Abortion often leaves deep spiritual and emotional scars on parents’ hearts–the amazing news of the Gospel is grace and forgiveness for this as well as any other sin! As a church, we desire to care for those who are struggling with the realities of a past abortion or a current “unplanned” pregnancy by welcoming them, offering them support and counseling, and supporting ministries that offer support and alternatives like foster and adoptive care.

PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

As we have noted already, ALL human life is created in the image of God and is thus sacred. 12 This includes people with severe illnesses, chromosomal aberrations, and injuries that cause the Lord’s precious children to exist with impairments to physical and cognitive functioning that are often severe.  Such impairments do NOTHING to lessen the worth of these individuals in the eyes of the Father, in fact, He uses them to glorify Himself in powerful ways unique to them. 13  In fact, Jesus Christ was notably drawn to the crippled and sick during His time on Earth. 14 At Fellowship Bible Church, we believe that the Gospel compels us particularly to reach out to families of individuals with special needs.  We would completely reject any and all cultural or governmental policy efforts that would seem to diminish the worth of these precious souls.

END OF LIFE CARE/EUTHANASIA

The intentional taking of human life is wrong. 15 The Oxford Dictionary defines euthanasia as “the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma.” It is critically important to note the use of the word “killing.” That word implies intent to end life, which is an altogether different issue than that of a suffering patient being allowed to die painlessly, such as when pain medications are administered to a patient with a terminal disease with the intent of easing suffering, or when, for perceived quality-of-life issues, a patient chooses to forgo life-sustaining technologies that might otherwise maintain his/her physiological functions. At Fellowship Bible Church, we believe that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia defy God’s commandment not to murder. 16 Alternatively, trusting in the Bible’s promises that the LORD is sovereign over the number of our days and months 17 , Fellowship Bible Church believes that the use of palliative care treatments (such as pain medications towards the end of life) and a patient and/or family’s well-informed decision not to pursue certain treatments or technologies that they view as more burdensome than beneficial, are well-supported by scripture. Such decisions are always difficult and emotionally wrenching for patients and families. The pastors and elders of Fellowship Bible Church stand ready to attempt to offer not only comfort but biblical counsel in these incredibly difficult situations. (Recommended resource: Basic Questions on End of Life Decisions: How Do We Know What Is Right? By John Frederic Kilner)

Sacred Seed: A Collection of Essays

Compiled and edited by the Global Peace Initiative of Women with an introduction by Vandana Shiva

$ 12.99 – $ 19.95

Description

Table of contents, contributors, endorsements, translations.

"A Best Spiritual Book of the Year" Spirituality & Practice

"... More than an essay collection, this is a call for worldwide action." Publishers Weekly

ESSENTIAL TO SURVIVAL, seeds have profound spiritual implications. For centuries the planting of seed in the earth not only nourished humanity, but also symbolized the mystery of life and the journey of the soul. In our current supermarket lifestyle of pre-packaged products, far removed from the cycles of planting, we have nearly forgotten this mystery. Now as the integrity of the seed is threatened, so is its primal meaning.

Inspired by physicist and environmental leader Dr. Vandana Shiva, each essay draws on the wisdom of ancient and modern traditions. Mystics, shamans, monastics and priests remind us of the profound sacredness of the seed — how in its purity, it is the source and renewal of all of life.

Tenderly composed of original writings and vibrant photos, this book bears witness that the Earth is alive, and establishes that only by working together with the Earth — with its wonder and mystery — can we help in its healing and regeneration and once again bring meaning back into the world.

Edited and compiled by the Global Peace Initiative of Women , the book includes contributions from His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, H. H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Sister Joan Chittister, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Swami Veda Bharati, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Chief Tamale Bwoya, Blu Greenberg & others ( for more contributors ) .

Watch Trailer: SACRED SEED: A Collection of Essays

• Foreword by Dena Merriam, Founder and Convener, Global Peace Initiative of Women
• Introduction by Dr. Vandana Shiva
• Sacred Seed–The Orthodox Christian Tradition by His All-Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
• The Seed of Compassion by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
• Seeds of a New Humanity by Sister Joan Chittister, OSB
• Seeds and the Story of the Soul by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
• Seed As the Cosmic Principle by Swami Veda Bharati
• Seeds of Promise by Rabbi Rami Shapiro
• The Seed of Love by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
• A Little Seed of Awakening by Acharya Judy Lief
• Seed of Wisdom by Swami Atmarupananda
• A Haudenosaunee Reflection on "Seed: The Power of Life" by Dr. Dan Longboat, Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky)
• The Sacred Bond by Sobonfu Somé
• The Sacred Mystery of Physis: Honoring Seed in Ancient Greece by Christoph Quarch, PhD
• The Seed–The Source by Sister Jayanti
• Seeds of the Spirit: A Call to Spiritual Action for Mother Earth A Haudenosaunee Reflection by Kahontakwas Diane Longboat
• Seeds and the Sacred by Mary Ann Burris
• There Is No Life Without a Seed and There Is No Seed Without a Life by Venerable Bhante Buddharakkhita
• Listening to the Hidden Heart of Seeds by Angela Fischer
• And the Last Shall Be First by Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary, NYC: Shailly Barnes, Adam Barnes, Rev. Liz Theoharis, and Rev. Kathy Maskell
• Seeds and the Miracle of Life by Aliaa Rafea, PhD
• The DNA of Our SOUL Cannot Be Genetically Modified! by Swami Omkarananda
• The Power and Importance of the Seed: The Heritage of Nature's Intelligence by Acharya David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)
• The Interbreath of Life and the Seeds It Scatters 'Round Our Planet by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
• The Rejuvenating Power of Seeds by Chief Tamale Bwoya
• Our Great Little Relatives–Seeds! by Rev. Doju Dinajara Freire
• The Seed and the Tao by Nan Lu, OMD
• The Parable of the Sower by Rev. Richard Cizik
• The Secret of the Seed by Sraddhalu Ranade
• Seeds Are the Transcendent Stuff of Life by Blu Greenberg
• The Stunted Seed by Teny Pirri-Simonian
• The Seed-ing of Consciousness, Seed-ing of the Heart by Tiokasin Ghosthorse
• Seeds and the Cosmic Seeding of Oneness by Sufi Rehman Muhaiyaddeen
• The Language of the Seed by Anat Vaughan-Lee
• Cosmic Ecology and Diversity: Lessons from the Vedas by Swamini Svatmavidyananda
• Contributor Biographies
• Photo Credits

"Diversity is a product of care, connection, and cultural pride. The mango breeders wanted to give us the best taste, the best quality. So they evolved the diversity of the delicious dasheri, langra, alphonso . . . "The tribals and peasants who gave us rice diversity wanted to develop a rice for lactating mothers, a rice for babies, a rice for old people. They wanted to have rices that survive droughts and floods and cyclones, so they evolved climate-resilient rices. In the Himalaya, different rices are needed for different altitudes and different slopes. The intimacy and care that go with belonging to a place and a community allows diversity to flourish. Conserving and growing diversity comes as naturally as breathing." Vandana Shiva, From the Introduction

"Every seed contains the potential to save the world. Each seed can keep millions of people from starvation. Each seed is a mirror and guardian of the world’s future. Each seed is the ecology that can sustain the economy. This is why seeds are sacred and why they are traditionally believed to be miraculous in indigenous circles." HAH Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Essay: Sacred Seed–The Orthodox Christian Tradition

"The food that shows up on our plates, meal after meal, is made available through far-reaching chains of interactions–of many people who have struggled under terrible conditions, of animals that are painfully exploited, and land that has been misused and contaminated. When we eat that food, the least we can do is feel some gratitude to all the beings that have taken part in the process so that we can live. It is essential that we awaken the seed of compassion in ourselves and make ethical choices that minimize the suffering of others." HH the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje Essay: The Seed of Compassion

"In every seed lie the components of all life the world has known from all time to now." Sister Joan Chittister, Essay: Seeds of a New Humanity

"The fact that we have to fight for something so essential to life as the integrity of seeds, speaks to the real drama of this present time: that we have to fight to preserve what is most fundamental and sacred to life." Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Essay: Seeds and the Story of the Soul

"Each moment of time carries the potentiality of a seed that unfolds into future events." Swami Veda Bharati, Essay: Seed as the Cosmic Principle

"Our kabbalists looked to the pomegranate as their metaphor for mystical union, a state they called  Pardes Rimonim , the Garden of Pomegranates, where the infinite seeds of compassion, love, justice, and hope take root in the lives of those who enter it." Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Essay: Seeds of Promise

"A seed is small but rich with possibility, like love, which is as humble as it is powerful." Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Essay: The Seed of Love

"Ordinary seeds need the right combination of soil, water, and climate to grow. Once those conditions are in alignment, the seed will naturally begin to develop. The seed of Buddha Nature is the same. It will lie dormant until the right conditions come together. But once we discover this potential within us, we can water our seed with loving kindness and prepare its bed with mindfulness. When we do so, the growth of the seed of awakening will be effortless and natural." Acharya Judy Lief, Essay: A Little Seed of Awakening

"Because of the nature of our constitution, we have been gifted with a diversity of seeds and nutrients to ensure our survival. These gifts are not about reinforcing our human propensity to dominate; rather they are about how we can learn to be a steward, within the sacred contract. It is only when we can humble ourselves enough to bow to this sacred contract that our survival is assured." Sobonfu Somé, Essay: The Sacred Bond

Dena Merriam

Dena Merriam is the founder and convener of Global Peace Initiative of Women. Under the leadership of women, the mission of this organization is to enable women, men, and young adults to facilitate healing and reconciliation in areas of conflict and post-conflict, and to bring spiritual resources to help address critical global problems.

Vandana Shiva

Introduction

Dr. Vandana Shiva has, over the past 35 years dedicated her life to the protection of nature and defense of people's rights to nature's resources—forests, biodiversity, water, land. Dr. Shiva has played an important role in building the movement for GMO-free food and agriculture. She is the founder of the organization Navdanya: navdanya.org

HAH Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Sacred Seed – The Orthodox Christian Tradition

His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, is the 270th successor of the 2,000-year-old local Christian Church founded by St. Andrew the Apostle. Nicknamed the "Green Patriarch," Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is a prominent leader in the environmental movement.

HH the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje

The Seed of Compassion

His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje is the head of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu Lineage and guide to millions of Buddhists around the world. As an environmental activist, computer enthusiast, and world spiritual leader, whose teachings are often webcast live, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has brought the Karmapa lineage's activities fully into the twenty-first century.

Sister Joan Chittister

Seeds of a New Humanity

Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, is an internationally known writer and lecturer. She currently serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, facilitating a worldwide network of women peacebuilders from all the faith traditions.

• Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Seeds and the Story of the Soul

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, PhD, is a Sufi teacher whose writing and teaching focuses on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition and an awakening to the importance of spiritual ecology. Author of several books, he has specialized in the area of dreamwork, integrating the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of Jungian Psychology. He is the editor of the recently published anthology, Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth .

Swami Veda Bharati

Seed as the Cosmic Principle

Swami Veda Bharati (died 14 July 2015) was a renowned meditation master. Founder of the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International and founder of Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama Ashram in Rishikesh, India, he was also Spiritual Guide to the Ashram of late Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Author of more than twenty books, a poet and scholar, he travelled and lectured internationally for 67 years.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Seeds of Promise

A congregational rabbi for twenty years, Rabbi Rami currently co-directs One River Wisdom School and Holy Rascals Foundation. Rami blogs at rabbirami.blogspot.com, writes a regular column for Spirituality and Health Magazine called “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler,” and hosts the weekly Internet radio show, How to Be a Holy Rascal on Unity On-line Radio (unity.fm/program/howtobeaholyrascal.com). His newest book is Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent (SkyLight Paths, Sept 2013).

Pir Zia Inayat-Khan

The Seed of Love

Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, PhD, is a scholar and teacher of Sufism in the tradition of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Since 2004, he has served as Head of the Sufi Order International, and he is also the founder of Suluk Academy and Seven Pillars House of Wisdom. Pir Zia's most recent book, Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity, and the Mystical Quest, was published by Suluk Press in 2012. Further information: inayatiorder.org and pirzia.org

Acharya Judy Lief

A Little Seed of Awakening

Acharya Judy Lief is a senior student of Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who empowered her as a teacher in the Buddhist and Shambhala traditions. She has edited many of his books, including the recently published three-volume Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma.

Swami Atmarupananda

Seed of Wisdom

Swami Atmarupananda is a renowned scholar, teacher, and Monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India, a monastic organization dedicated to the teaching of Vedanta. He joined the Order in 1969 and spent many years in India engaged in monastic, scholarly, and spiritual training.

Dr. Dan Longboat, Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky)

A Haudenosaunee Reflection on "Seed: The Power of Life"

Dr. Dan Longboat, Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky), is Mohawk from the Six Nations of the Grand River. He is Director of the Indigenous Environmental Studies Program at Trent.

Sobonfu Somé

The Sacred Bond

Sobonfu Somé (died January 14, 2017) was an author, teacher, activist, and one of the foremost voices in African spirituality in the West. Sobonfu traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe, conducting workshops on spirituality, ritual, the sacred, and intimacy.

Christoph Quarch

The Sacred Mystery of Physis: Honoring Seed in Ancient Greece

Christoph Quarch, PhD, is a philosopher, theologian, author, and coach in the fields of philosophy and spirituality, and teaches Ethics and Cultural History at Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has served as Ambassador of the World Wisdom Council and consultant to the Parliament of the World's Religions.

Sister Jayanti

The Seed—The Source

Sister Jayanti is the European Director of the Brahma Kumaris, with over forty years of experience of Raja Yoga meditation and its practical application in daily life. Her gentle voice and profound insights on spiritual solutions to everyday problems have touched the hearts of thousands around the world.

Kahontakwas Diane Longboat

Seeds of the Spirit: A Call to Spiritual Action for Mother Earth

Kahontakwas (Diane) Longboat, Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation from the Six Nations Grand River Territory, is a ceremonial leader, healer, and traditional teacher of Indigenous spiritual ways. She offers ceremonies at the Sacred Lodge of Soul of the Mother, where a Sacred Fire burns for the healing of Mother Earth and the spiritual renewal of humanity.

Mary Ann Burris

Seeds and the Sacred

Mary Ann Burris is the founder of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health based in Kenya. Her work centers around the importance of tradition and culture in implementing health and development work, and the use of ritual and art for healing and building peace.

Ven. Bhante Buddharakkhita

There Is No Life Without a Seed and There Is No Seed Without a Life

Venerable Bhante Buddharakkhita is the founder and abbot of the Uganda Buddhist Center in Uganda and the spiritual director of Flowering Lotus Meditation Center in Magnolia, Mississippi. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while living in India, and he began practicing meditation in 1993.

Angela Fischer

Listening to the Hidden Heart of Seeds

Angela Fischer is the author of several books on feminine spirituality and the oneness of life, and has lead seminars and retreats since her twenties. Integrating her work with family life, her focus has been on reanimating a genuine feminine spirituality, which leads to living women's spiritual responsibility for life and the Earth, as well as recovering the feminine principle in both women and men.

Poverty Initiative

And the Last Shall Be First

Established in 2004, the Poverty Initiative's mission is to raise up generations of grassroots religious and community leaders dedicated to building a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor. Contributions from: Shailly Barnes, Adam Barnes, Rev. Liz Theoharis, Rev. Kathy Maskell

Prof. Aliaa Rafea

Seeds and the Miracle of Life

Aliaa R. Rafea, PhD, is a professor of Anthropology at Ain Shams University, Women's College. She makes use of anthropological perspectives to understanding issues related to religion, politics, and culture. Author and founder and chair of The Human Foundation, she is also active in several Egyptian NGOs.

Swami Omkarananda

The DNA of Our SOUL Cannot Be Genetically Modified

Swami Omkarananda is the Spiritual Director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Los Angeles. She is passionate about building interfaith community, networking, Vedanta, Vedic ecology, permaculture, and helping people to develop spiritually.

Acharya David Frawley

The Power and Importance of the Seed: The Heritage of Nature's Intelligence

Acharya David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri) is a recognized Acharya and Pandit, a master teacher of Vedic knowledge in India, where he is also known as Vamadeva Shastri. He is the author of over thirty books on Yogic and Vedic subjects published in twenty different languages over the last thirty years.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The Interbreath of Life and the Seeds It Scatters 'Round Our Planet

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph.D., founded and directs The Shalom Center. He has pioneered the development of Eco-Judaism through the Green Menorah organizing project of The Shalom Center and the Interfaith Freedom Seder for the Earth, as well as through such books as Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology; and Torah of the Earth: 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought.

Chief Tamale Bwoya

The Rejuvenating Power of Seeds

As Mugema (grand chief), Chief Tamale Bwoya supervises cultural development, serves as spiritual arbitrator, facilitates purification ceremonies, and ensures stability of the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda. At recent international conferences in Kenya and Japan, he received two spiritual revelations addressed to the world's spiritual chiefs.

Rev. Doju Dinajara Freire

Our Great Little Relatives—Seeds!

Rev. Doju Dinajara Freire is a Zen Buddhist nun, dancer, educator, and author. She teaches meditation at Dojo Zen Sanrin community in Fossano. Rev. Freire has been the European representative for the Global Peace Initiative of Women, helping to organize programs related to the sacred feminine and interfaith.

The Seed and the Tao

Nan Lu, OMD, is a Taoist master who has the unique gift of cross-cultural communication and the ability to interpret essential, timeless spiritual and healing truths with clarity, depth, compassion, and humor. He is a high-level Qigong master and a longtime doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.

Rev. Richard Cizik

The Parable of the Sower

Rev. Richard Cizik is the President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good and a leader of the "new evangelical" movement in America. He is an ordained minister, speaker, activist, writer, and public intellectual for a new kind of religious leadership that cares for the earth.

Sraddhalu Ranade

The Secret of the Seed

Sraddhalu Ranade is a scientist, educator, and one of the leading scholars on the teachings of the late Indian sage, Sri Aurobindo. He leads retreats, delivers talks, and conducts workshops on a range of themes including Vedic philosophy, ecology, and worldview, integral education, self-development, Indian culture, science and spirituality, spiritual evolution, and yoga.

Blu Greenberg

Seeds Are the Transcendent Stuff of Life

Author and lecturer Blu Greenberg has published widely on contemporary issues of feminism, Orthodoxy, and the Jewish family. Among her many public roles, she chaired the first and second International Conferences on Feminism and Orthodoxy in 1997 and 1998 and is founding president of JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.

Teny Pirri-Simonian

The Stunted Seed

Teny Pirri-Simonian, an adult educator, lay theologian, and researcher in the Sociology of Religions, is a member of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicosate of Cilicia, Antelias, Lebanon. She has written extensively on the role of women in the church and society, and on women living together in religiously pluralist societies. She is an advisor to the Global Peace Initiative of Women.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse

The Seed-ing of Consciousness, Seed-ing of the Heart

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota and has a long history with Indigenous activism and advocacy. He is a board member of several charitable organizations working to bring non-western education to Native and non-Native children, and is the host of First Voices Indigenous Radio.

Sufi Rehman Mahaiyaddeen

Seeds and the Cosmic Seeding of Oneness

Sufi Rehman Mahaiyadeen is the founder and the servant at the Sufi Circle Lahore, dedicated to composing human personality through Sufi zikr and muraqaba (meditation). Moreover, he serves as the director of Green Living Association—an organization for Environmental Peace focused on building responsible, peaceful, and globally-aligned future generations of Pakistan.

Anat Vaughan-Lee

The Language of the Seed

For many years Anat Vaughan-Lee has been working with groups and dreamwork in the Sufi tradition, which encourages the deep feminine way of inner listening. Together with her husband Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, she is involved in raising awareness of the deep ecological crisis of the Earth and has helped in the creation of the recent publication Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, as well as its rich and informative website.

Swamini Svatmavidyananda

Cosmic Ecology and Diversity: Lessons from the Vedas

Sri Swamini Svatmavidyananda Saraswati, a longtime disciple of Paramapujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati of India, is an accomplished scholar of Vedanta. For several years, she has led an active satsang community in the United States, serving as the Spiritual Director of Swami Dayananda's USA center: Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam based in Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Oregon.

“The way we live and act is determined by the perceptual lenses that are shaped by our beliefs and values. Our belief that it is our right to use as we wish, any part of the biosphere—air, water, soil, other life forms—has created problem after problem. If life is sacred, then we cannot treat other organisms as if they are cars or computers, we must act with humility, respect and love. This book provides a powerful perspective to temper our unseemly rush to engineer everything within the biosphere.” David Suzuki, author, The Sacred Balance

"There is no more beautiful gift from nature than the seed—and its protection is vital to our survival. Vandana Shiva, Navdanya, the Global Peace Initiative of Women, and the brilliant spiritual leaders who contributed their voices to this book are all elevating our dialogue about seeds, and the profound role they hold for the future of all humankind." Alice Waters, chef, author, culinary visionary, and proprietor of Chez Panisse

“These essays establish, with clarity and eloquence, a single crucial insight: our spiritual well-being and our approach to the use of the Earth for our nourishment are inseparable. We have woken up to the fact that the problem of food security is painfully pressing for the coming generation: what this book tells us is that we cannot address this without thinking again very radically about how we see our human growth and nurture; and we cannot cultivate a ‘spirituality’ that pays no attention to the facts of hunger, waste, environmental degradation and so on. This is an exceptional testimony to the holistic thinking our society so desperately needs.” Dr. Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, and current Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

“Ever since I watched the women in Bangladeshi farm families carefully saving seed from one generation to the next, I’ve pondered on this greatest symbol of our connection through time to those who came before and those who will come after. This book is a rich storehouse of wisdom for all the springs to come.” Bill McKibben, founder, 350.org

“This book is timely and timeless in its importance. The seeds that bring forth life and food for our planet and its people are indispensable for the continuity of all living things. Thus our care for seeds is one of the most vital things we can do amid our many challenges of the present. These articles light a luminous path forward.” Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-director, Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University and Emerging Earth Community; executive producer and co-writer, Journey of the Universe

“A reverence for our ancient seeds is essential to our very survival. Sacred Seed explains in beautiful detail how and why we must protect them.” Ed Begley Jr., American actor, director and environmentalist, EdBegley.com

“Through the seeds, they say, speak the voices of the ancestors. It’s hard to imagine a more timely moment than now—when the global biodiversity of seeds is so dangerously under threat, with the hopefulness and promise that seeds symbolize and embody—for this gathering of sacred voices to emerge. Gift yourself with the vitality of this collection, and share it, to revitalize your community and encourage restoring a sense of sacredness to our foods, and health and security.” Nina Simons, president and co-founder, Bioneers; past president, Seeds of Change

“Caring for seeds is caring for one of the most evolutionarily profound and numinous expressions of life. At this critical time in human history, seeds could not be more important and this beautiful and transformative book, Sacred Seed, is an exquisite poetic testimony that reconnects us to the very web of life. Each author offers elegant wisdom and heartfelt praise of life-giving seeds.” Osprey Orielle Lake, founder, Women's Earth and Climate Caucus

“Preserving seed diversity—our vast and beautiful heritage of seeds—is one of the most pressing crises facing the human community. Our future depends on our courageous actions now. May these essays by great spiritual voices from around the world awaken us to value, care for, and stand up for the seeds that nature has gifted to us.” Frances Moore Lappé, author, Diet for a Small Planet and EcoMind

“How many are your works, Lord! . . . The earth is full of your creatures . . . teeming with creatures beyond number . . . May the glory of the Lord endure forever . . . ’ (Psalms 104). Whether secular or religious, we must recognize and preserve the bounty of nature or we stand to lose our very humanity.” James Hansen, former director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

To name a seed as sacred is to make a small but emphatic protest against its commodification, genetic manipulation, and corporate control. But such naming does more; it moves us beyond protest and calls forth a necessary reverence for the material stuff of Creation. In this fine collection of essays the subject is seeds, but what these authors call for is nothing less than the re-enchantment of the world." Fred Bahnson, author, Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith; director, Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative at Wake Forest University School of Divinity; http://fredbahnson.com

“This book is a testament to the relevance of the seed selection of our ancestors that we have an obligation to continue for ourselves and future generations; seed saving, and by extension appropriate selection, is a natural behaviour of human kind and a very important part of our positive position in the potentially infinite cycle of life on Earth. Without governing ethics, science has continued in a direction of seed manipulation that can only be honestly described as sociopathic behaviour governed only by short-term greed.” Geoff Lawton, permaculture design pioneer, GeoffLawton.com

“Through gorgeous photography and essays spanning many traditions, this book offers a diversity of lenses to view the sacredness of seed.” Charles Eisenstein, author & speaker, CharlesEisenstein.net

“Sacred Seed honors farmers and eaters around the world who recognize that seeds are not only the foundation of the food system, but that their preservation is intricately tied to the preservation of humanity. Seeds provide both dietary and cultural diversity—reminding us of our past and providing us with future sustenance. The essays in this book show us the true value of protecting seeds for both present and future generations—and that the time to take action is now!” Danielle Nierenberg, president, Food Tank: The Food Think Tank

“This book, its very theme, and its reverent illustrations have the taste and scent of holiness! The humble seed on which we totally depend is just as invisible, humble, and unappreciated as holiness itself often is. As a Franciscan, I know that is exactly where we find the greatest mystery and the most alluring truth.” Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation

“By virtue of the fact that ‘the end is in the beginning’ with reference to everything in life, the primordial sacredness of a ‘seed’ is a reality we should all embrace. This brilliant series of essays by the most distinguished of spiritual thinkers reveals every aspect of this truth with great force and clarity. All thanks goes to those who have compiled this remarkable offering.” John Reed, author, Elegant Simplicity

“This rich and much needed collection of essays inspired in me my own prayer. . . . The Prayer of the Seed: ‘I am but small and seemingly insignificant yet I bear life in my tiny body. I am a source of hope for a hungry and hurting world. So I pray treasure me as precious—source of life for God's creatures.’” Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, chair, Global Peace Initiative of Women; former general secretary, National Council of the Churches of Christ

“Almost 100 years ago, Liberty Hyde Baily admonished us to adopt a ‘new hold’ with respect to agriculture and our entire relationship with nature, a ‘hold’ that recognized the importance ‘for spiritual contact.’ Such a new hold constitutes a cultural transformation that is essential to the survival of the human species. Sacred Seed is an inspiring collection of brief essays from a variety of faith communities that can help inspire us to engage this important transformation.” Frederick Kirschenmann, author, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher

“The journey of a seed, so intuitively reverenced in the Earth’s spiritual traditions, continues to be illumined today by the discoveries of modern science. Now we can not only intuit, but also observe the sacred unity embedded in a seed. This observation is a different kind of contemplative gaze, the fruit of an unwavering and persistent search for truth by those questioning the cosmological, biological, historical, and geological assumptions held by earlier generations who, through no fault of their own, could not have made those observations. The present unspeakable violence to seeds, which is a human-caused tragedy, has too often been tacitly condoned through silence. In no small way the perspectives of an evolving universe have catalyzed the writings in this book, and they counteract that silence with an expansion of the rich spiritual legacy of traditional wisdoms. We need these words now more than ever. We also give thanks to the farmers, activists, and ordinary people who have struggled mightily, with conscience and their own common sense, to resist the desecration of the seed. We give special thanks to Vandana Shiva, for her extraordinary courage and towering accomplishments.” Miriam MacGillis, O.P., director, Genesis Farm

“Here is a beautiful mandala of voices of religious leaders worldwide, bringing moral imperative to the fight for seeds. Human salvation depends on seed salvation. I devoured the teachings of this holy text—seeds as the bridge over death, seeds as compassion...” Janisse Ray, author, The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Seeds

“Ancient cultures representing the world’s wisdom traditions maintained a sacred connection to seeds and agriculture; evolving with the natural world as one. As humanity becomes more and more disconnected from the natural world so do our relationships with the life-supporting systems that we are destroying faster than our ability to understand the future consequences and impacts. Extinction of traditional seed species is likely to be one of our longest-lasting legacies and likely our own extinction. The essays in Sacred Seed present us with another possibility, an urgent awakening and honoring that reunites seeds with the sacred.” Suzanne Marstrand, founder, Earth Origin Seeds

“Generative inspiration and awakening thoughts pour out of these pages like seeds waiting to land in the rich soil of cultivated empathy. Tend them with the light of thinking and the warmth of interest and invite the miraculous to emerge.” Martin Ping, executive director, Hawthorne Valley Association

“Sacred Seed is a not only an homage to the endangered nourishment of our planet but to the spiritual source of our lives. Each reading is both a teaching and a prayer, and the beauty of the illustrations alone is enough to make me want to keep this book by my bed or next to my meditation pillow for years, there to provide inspiration when I need it. Drawing from diverse sources, it feeds our longing for the sacred while it awakens the energy to act so that our grandchildren and theirs will enjoy strong, healthy, and sacred lives.” Mirabai Bush, senior fellow and associate director, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

“This collection of short meditations leads to the image of the seed as a spiritual potency that mediates transformation and life on earth. A sense of respect, a desire to care, and the will to protect grows in the soul when we begin to recognize this potency. It is this transformation of our inner relation to the world that provides deep and sustaining ground for environmental awareness and activism. That is a central message of the book. The authors of the meditations are rooted in different spiritual traditions and many of them are also activists. Moving through the variety of perspectives I could sense a common ground of insight and concern that informs the traditions—a unity that is all the more potent when spoken through the diverse voices.” Craig Holdrege, author, Thinking Like a Plant, A Living Science for Life; director, The Nature Institute

“Seeds are it, containing within their humble abode all of life’s potency, promise, and potential. This beauteous book is a call to conscious action. It is chock full of seeds ready to take root in hearts and minds, sparking a reverentially infectious connection to life’s sacred beginnings.” Trathen Heckman, director, Daily Acts, and board president, Transition US

“Seed is life. Sacred Seed brings to light that we are killing ourselves by destroying the very seed of life . . . the gift of God, the word of God. This book speaks to the rebirth of souls, and shows how all religions and cultures consider seed as the life giver and saver. A first of its kind, this collection of articles from great spiritual and cultural leaders from around the world reflects the cosmic intelligence embedded in all forms of life, where seed acts as the source and the connection to the higher self. Seed is a part of natural law, and a fight against it is not only unlawful but harmful to our coexistence in the true sense. This book clearly shows how seed is humble and powerful. Everything on earth is grown from a seed, and every seed carries a secret that it only tells when it grows. The seed is the beginning and the end of everything. A seed is the power of nature, and it is part of us and we are part of it. Seed predates all historical facts, because it is the beginning. As Lord Buddha said some 2700 years ago, everything is interdependent. Listen to the spiritual and natural voices of the earth. They never get old or lost. I recommend to all people on our planet to understand deeply the implications of GMOs in light of the significance, meaning, and power of seed. An indigenous seed can bring the earth back to life.” Dr. Saamdu, The Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan

Note:  Introduzione di Vandana Shiva

Libreria Editrice Fiorentina Pagine:  122 ISBN:  978-88-65000-96-0 F.to  19×19 Euro:  20,00

Un insieme ecumenico di affermazioni morali convergenti da parte di portavoce di molte religioni. Chiamati a pronunciarsi da Vandana Shiva, gli autori indicano i limiti che la scienza deve rispettare per continuare a scoprire sempre nuovi tesori nell’infinita memoria dei semi, impronta della volontà e dell’amore del Creatore per la terra come comunità di esseri viventi.

Gli autori:  Il libro è preceduto da un’introduzione di Vandana Shiva, scienziata indiana che attraverso la fisica quantistica e l’epistemologia supera le barriere fra le specializzazioni che rendono la scienza moderna una torre di Babele.

Interventi di:  Sua Santità il patriarca ecumenico Bartolomeo della Chiesa ortodossa; Pir Zia Inayat-Khan Sufi, Islam; Sua Santità il 17° Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, guida di milioni di buddisti; sorella Joan Chittister, OSB, benedettina, Pennsylvania; Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, fondatore del Golden Sufi Center, California; il capo Tamale Bwoya, medico erborista tradizionale, Uganda; Swami Veda Bharati, indu Rishikesh, India; Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Cheyenne River Lakota Nation South Dakota; il rabbino Arthur Waskow, the Shalom Center; Blu Greenberg, ebrea ortodossa e diversi altri.

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Seeds Are A Sacred Metaphor For Life And Renewal, Say These Faiths

Reporter, HuffPost

With water, sun and soil, a tiny seed can grow into a majestic tree. The seed's power to transform so dramatically seems almost mythic in proportion, which is perhaps why seeds appear in many religious parables .

Today we've lost our connection to the life-giving properties of seeds as a by-product of our highly industrialized and "materialistic" culture, according to author and Sufi mystic Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee.

"We have not only lost the sacred dimension of the seeds but a lived connection to the sacred Earth," Vaughan-Lee told The Huffington Post.

He went on to ask, "How can life have real meaning if we have no connection to a sacred Earth?"

Vaughan-Lee and other religious leaders addressed this question in Sacred Seed , a collection of essays collection of essays published in 2014 by the Golden Sufi Center, which Vaughan-Lee founded in 1991 .

Thirty-three leaders and scholars from different religious traditions contributed essays to the book, each with a slightly different take on the sacred role of seeds in human life. The book was compiled and edited by the Global Peace Initiative of Women with an introduction by environmental activist Vandana Shiva.

The agricultural practices of genetically modifying crops and prioritizing monocultures over multi-crop farming have made biodiversity plummet in many parts of the world, Shiva wrote. India once had 200,000 rice varieties before monocultures took hold, she continued. Today the country grows just eight globally-traded strains of rice.

"When seed is living and regenerative and diverse, it feeds the pollinators, the soil organisms, and the animals, including humans," Shiva wrote. "When seed is non-renewable, bred for chemicals, or genetically engineered ... diversity disappears."

This loss of diversity and abundance has a metaphoric equivalent in human life. When seeds lose their potency, human beings lose a powerful symbol of renewal.

"Seeds are the one thing that are the only genuine promise we have of the future," wrote prominent nun and activist Sister Joan Chittister in her essay. Seeds contain the "power of creation."

"In every seed," she wrote, "is the gift of life to those seeking life, wanting life, denied the kind of life that is full of energy, full of hope."

The earth shares that energy with us by producing the food our lives depend on, wrote Buddhist leader Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa of Tibet, in his essay.

"It is very important that we emulate the Earth’s attitude of generosity towards us," Dorje wrote. "Just as we would do when receiving a precious gift from someone we love, we need to nurture what we have been given."

There are several ways we can begin nurturing the sacred power of seeds right away, according to the book's contributors. Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, of the indigenous Mohawk Nation, suggested in her essay that people plant community gardens and purchase foods that haven't been genetically modified.

On a spiritual level, Vaughan-Lee said we must develop deeper reverence for our food. That, he said, can start with a single bite.

"When you eat a fruit take a moment to sense the mystery of its seed, that it has a story," he told HuffPost. "Seeds are what gives us life, and we have to reclaim this simple but essential wonder, that food is not just a commodity, but a life-giving blessing."

Also on HuffPost:

Natural Wonders

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Follow YES! For Teachers

Eight brilliant student essays on what matters most in life.

Read winning essays from our spring 2019 student writing contest.

For the spring 2019 student writing contest, we invited students to read the YES! article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age” by Nancy Hill. Like the author, students interviewed someone significantly older than them about the three things that matter most in life. Students then wrote about what they learned, and about how their interviewees’ answers compare to their own top priorities.

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these eight were chosen as winners. Be sure to read the author’s response to the essay winners and the literary gems that caught our eye. Plus, we share an essay from teacher Charles Sanderson, who also responded to the writing prompt.

Middle School Winner: Rory Leyva

High School Winner:  Praethong Klomsum

University Winner:  Emily Greenbaum

Powerful Voice Winner: Amanda Schwaben

Powerful Voice Winner: Antonia Mills

Powerful Voice Winner:  Isaac Ziemba

Powerful Voice Winner: Lily Hersch

“Tell It Like It Is” Interview Winner: Jonas Buckner

From the Author: Response to Student Winners

Literary Gems

From A Teacher: Charles Sanderson

From the Author: Response to Charles Sanderson

Middle School Winner

Village Home Education Resource Center, Portland, Ore.

The Lessons Of Mortality 

“As I’ve aged, things that are more personal to me have become somewhat less important. Perhaps I’ve become less self-centered with the awareness of mortality, how short one person’s life is.” This is how my 72-year-old grandma believes her values have changed over the course of her life. Even though I am only 12 years old, I know my life won’t last forever, and someday I, too, will reflect on my past decisions. We were all born to exist and eventually die, so we have evolved to value things in the context of mortality.

One of the ways I feel most alive is when I play roller derby. I started playing for the Rose City Rollers Juniors two years ago, and this year, I made the Rosebud All-Stars travel team. Roller derby is a fast-paced, full-contact sport. The physicality and intense training make me feel in control of and present in my body.

My roller derby team is like a second family to me. Adolescence is complicated. We understand each other in ways no one else can. I love my friends more than I love almost anything else. My family would have been higher on my list a few years ago, but as I’ve aged it has been important to make my own social connections.

Music led me to roller derby.  I started out jam skating at the roller rink. Jam skating is all about feeling the music. It integrates gymnastics, breakdancing, figure skating, and modern dance with R & B and hip hop music. When I was younger, I once lay down in the DJ booth at the roller rink and was lulled to sleep by the drawl of wheels rolling in rhythm and people talking about the things they came there to escape. Sometimes, I go up on the roof of my house at night to listen to music and feel the wind rustle my hair. These unique sensations make me feel safe like nothing else ever has.

My grandma tells me, “Being close with family and friends is the most important thing because I haven’t

always had that.” When my grandma was two years old, her father died. Her mother became depressed and moved around a lot, which made it hard for my grandma to make friends. Once my grandma went to college, she made lots of friends. She met my grandfather, Joaquin Leyva when she was working as a park ranger and he was a surfer. They bought two acres of land on the edge of a redwood forest and had a son and a daughter. My grandma created a stable family that was missing throughout her early life.

My grandma is motivated to maintain good health so she can be there for her family. I can relate because I have to be fit and strong for my team. Since she lost my grandfather to cancer, she realizes how lucky she is to have a functional body and no life-threatening illnesses. My grandma tries to eat well and exercise, but she still struggles with depression. Over time, she has learned that reaching out to others is essential to her emotional wellbeing.  

Caring for the earth is also a priority for my grandma I’ve been lucky to learn from my grandma. She’s taught me how to hunt for fossils in the desert and find shells on the beach. Although my grandma grew up with no access to the wilderness, she admired the green open areas of urban cemeteries. In college, she studied geology and hiked in the High Sierras. For years, she’s been an advocate for conserving wildlife habitat and open spaces.

Our priorities may seem different, but it all comes down to basic human needs. We all desire a purpose, strive to be happy, and need to be loved. Like Nancy Hill says in the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” it can be hard to decipher what is important in life. I believe that the constant search for satisfaction and meaning is the only thing everyone has in common. We all want to know what matters, and we walk around this confusing world trying to find it. The lessons I’ve learned from my grandma about forging connections, caring for my body, and getting out in the world inspire me to live my life my way before it’s gone.

Rory Leyva is a seventh-grader from Portland, Oregon. Rory skates for the Rosebuds All-Stars roller derby team. She loves listening to music and hanging out with her friends.

High School Winner

Praethong Klomsum

  Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, Calif.

Time Only Moves Forward

Sandra Hernandez gazed at the tiny house while her mother’s gentle hands caressed her shoulders. It wasn’t much, especially for a family of five. This was 1960, she was 17, and her family had just moved to Culver City.

Flash forward to 2019. Sandra sits in a rocking chair, knitting a blanket for her latest grandchild, in the same living room. Sandra remembers working hard to feed her eight children. She took many different jobs before settling behind the cash register at a Japanese restaurant called Magos. “It was a struggle, and my husband Augustine, was planning to join the military at that time, too.”

In the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” author Nancy Hill states that one of the most important things is “…connecting with others in general, but in particular with those who have lived long lives.” Sandra feels similarly. It’s been hard for Sandra to keep in contact with her family, which leaves her downhearted some days. “It’s important to maintain that connection you have with your family, not just next-door neighbors you talk to once a month.”

Despite her age, Sandra is a daring woman. Taking risks is important to her, and she’ll try anything—from skydiving to hiking. Sandra has some regrets from the past, but nowadays, she doesn’t wonder about the “would have, could have, should haves.” She just goes for it with a smile.

Sandra thought harder about her last important thing, the blue and green blanket now finished and covering

her lap. “I’ve definitely lived a longer life than most, and maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I hope I can see the day my great-grandchildren are born.” She’s laughing, but her eyes look beyond what’s in front of her. Maybe she is reminiscing about the day she held her son for the first time or thinking of her grandchildren becoming parents. I thank her for her time and she waves it off, offering me a styrofoam cup of lemonade before I head for the bus station.

The bus is sparsely filled. A voice in my head reminds me to finish my 10-page history research paper before spring break. I take a window seat and pull out my phone and earbuds. My playlist is already on shuffle, and I push away thoughts of that dreaded paper. Music has been a constant in my life—from singing my lungs out in kindergarten to Barbie’s “I Need To Know,” to jamming out to Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in sixth grade, to BTS’s “Intro: Never Mind” comforting me when I’m at my lowest. Music is my magic shop, a place where I can trade away my fears for calm.

I’ve always been afraid of doing something wrong—not finishing my homework or getting a C when I can do better. When I was 8, I wanted to be like the big kids. As I got older, I realized that I had exchanged my childhood longing for the 48 pack of crayons for bigger problems, balancing grades, a social life, and mental stability—all at once. I’m going to get older whether I like it or not, so there’s no point forcing myself to grow up faster.  I’m learning to live in the moment.

The bus is approaching my apartment, where I know my comfy bed and a home-cooked meal from my mom are waiting. My mom is hard-working, confident, and very stubborn. I admire her strength of character. She always keeps me in line, even through my rebellious phases.

My best friend sends me a text—an update on how broken her laptop is. She is annoying. She says the stupidest things and loves to state the obvious. Despite this, she never fails to make me laugh until my cheeks feel numb. The rest of my friends are like that too—loud, talkative, and always brightening my day. Even friends I stopped talking to have a place in my heart. Recently, I’ve tried to reconnect with some of them. This interview was possible because a close friend from sixth grade offered to introduce me to Sandra, her grandmother.  

I’m decades younger than Sandra, so my view of what’s important isn’t as broad as hers, but we share similar values, with friends and family at the top. I have a feeling that when Sandra was my age, she used to love music, too. Maybe in a few decades, when I’m sitting in my rocking chair, drawing in my sketchbook, I’ll remember this article and think back fondly to the days when life was simple.

Praethong Klomsum is a tenth-grader at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California.  Praethong has a strange affinity for rhyme games and is involved in her school’s dance team. She enjoys drawing and writing, hoping to impact people willing to listen to her thoughts and ideas.

University Winner

Emily Greenbaum

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 

The Life-Long War

Every morning we open our eyes, ready for a new day. Some immediately turn to their phones and social media. Others work out or do yoga. For a certain person, a deep breath and the morning sun ground him. He hears the clink-clank of his wife cooking low sodium meat for breakfast—doctor’s orders! He sees that the other side of the bed is already made, the dogs are no longer in the room, and his clothes are set out nicely on the loveseat.

Today, though, this man wakes up to something different: faded cream walls and jello. This person, my hero, is Master Chief Petty Officer Roger James.

I pulled up my chair close to Roger’s vinyl recliner so I could hear him above the noise of the beeping dialysis machine. I noticed Roger would occasionally glance at his wife Susan with sparkly eyes when he would recall memories of the war or their grandkids. He looked at Susan like she walked on water.

Roger James served his country for thirty years. Now, he has enlisted in another type of war. He suffers from a rare blood cancer—the result of the wars he fought in. Roger has good and bad days. He says, “The good outweighs the bad, so I have to be grateful for what I have on those good days.”

When Roger retired, he never thought the effects of the war would reach him. The once shallow wrinkles upon his face become deeper, as he tells me, “It’s just cancer. Others are suffering from far worse. I know I’ll make it.”

Like Nancy Hill did in her article “Three Things that Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” I asked Roger, “What are the three most important things to you?” James answered, “My wife Susan, my grandkids, and church.”

Roger and Susan served together in the Vietnam war. She was a nurse who treated his cuts and scrapes one day. I asked Roger why he chose Susan. He said, “Susan told me to look at her while she cleaned me up. ‘This may sting, but don’t be a baby.’ When I looked into her eyes, I felt like she was looking into my soul, and I didn’t want her to leave. She gave me this sense of home. Every day I wake up, she makes me feel the same way, and I fall in love with her all over again.”

Roger and Susan have two kids and four grandkids, with great-grandchildren on the way. He claims that his grandkids give him the youth that he feels slowly escaping from his body. This adoring grandfather is energized by coaching t-ball and playing evening card games with the grandkids.

The last thing on his list was church. His oldest daughter married a pastor. Together they founded a church. Roger said that the connection between his faith and family is important to him because it gave him a reason to want to live again. I learned from Roger that when you’re across the ocean, you tend to lose sight of why you are fighting. When Roger returned, he didn’t have the will to live. Most days were a struggle, adapting back into a society that lacked empathy for the injuries, pain, and psychological trauma carried by returning soldiers. Church changed that for Roger and gave him a sense of purpose.

When I began this project, my attitude was to just get the assignment done. I never thought I could view Master Chief Petty Officer Roger James as more than a role model, but he definitely changed my mind. It’s as if Roger magically lit a fire inside of me and showed me where one’s true passions should lie. I see our similarities and embrace our differences. We both value family and our own connections to home—his home being church and mine being where I can breathe the easiest.

Master Chief Petty Officer Roger James has shown me how to appreciate what I have around me and that every once in a while, I should step back and stop to smell the roses. As we concluded the interview, amidst squeaky clogs and the stale smell of bleach and bedpans, I looked to Roger, his kind, tired eyes, and weathered skin, with a deeper sense of admiration, knowing that his values still run true, no matter what he faces.

Emily Greenbaum is a senior at Kent State University, graduating with a major in Conflict Management and minor in Geography. Emily hopes to use her major to facilitate better conversations, while she works in the Washington, D.C. area.  

Powerful Voice Winner

Amanda Schwaben

Wise Words From Winnie the Pooh

As I read through Nancy Hill’s article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” I was comforted by the similar responses given by both children and older adults. The emphasis participants placed on family, social connections, and love was not only heartwarming but hopeful. While the messages in the article filled me with warmth, I felt a twinge of guilt building within me. As a twenty-one-year-old college student weeks from graduation, I honestly don’t think much about the most important things in life. But if I was asked, I would most likely say family, friendship, and love. As much as I hate to admit it, I often find myself obsessing over achieving a successful career and finding a way to “save the world.”

A few weeks ago, I was at my family home watching the new Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin with my mom and younger sister. Well, I wasn’t really watching. I had my laptop in front of me, and I was aggressively typing up an assignment. Halfway through the movie, I realized I left my laptop charger in my car. I walked outside into the brisk March air. Instinctively, I looked up. The sky was perfectly clear, revealing a beautiful array of stars. When my twin sister and I were in high school, we would always take a moment to look up at the sparkling night sky before we came into the house after soccer practice.

I think that was the last time I stood in my driveway and gazed at the stars. I did not get the laptop charger from

my car; instead, I turned around and went back inside. I shut my laptop and watched the rest of the movie. My twin sister loves Winnie the Pooh. So much so that my parents got her a stuffed animal version of him for Christmas. While I thought he was adorable and a token of my childhood, I did not really understand her obsession. However, it was clear to me after watching the movie. Winnie the Pooh certainly had it figured out. He believed that the simple things in life were the most important: love, friendship, and having fun.

I thought about asking my mom right then what the three most important things were to her, but I decided not to. I just wanted to be in the moment. I didn’t want to be doing homework. It was a beautiful thing to just sit there and be present with my mom and sister.

I did ask her, though, a couple of weeks later. Her response was simple.  All she said was family, health, and happiness. When she told me this, I imagined Winnie the Pooh smiling. I think he would be proud of that answer.

I was not surprised by my mom’s reply. It suited her perfectly. I wonder if we relearn what is most important when we grow older—that the pressure to be successful subsides. Could it be that valuing family, health, and happiness is what ends up saving the world?

Amanda Schwaben is a graduating senior from Kent State University with a major in Applied Conflict Management. Amanda also has minors in Psychology and Interpersonal Communication. She hopes to further her education and focus on how museums not only preserve history but also promote peace.

Antonia Mills

Rachel Carson High School, Brooklyn, N.Y. 

Decoding The Butterfly

For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must first digest itself. The caterpillar, overwhelmed by accumulating tissue, splits its skin open to form its protective shell, the chrysalis, and later becomes the pretty butterfly we all know and love. There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies, and just as every species is different, so is the life of every butterfly. No matter how long and hard a caterpillar has strived to become the colorful and vibrant butterfly that we marvel at on a warm spring day, it does not live a long life. A butterfly can live for a year, six months, two weeks, and even as little as twenty-four hours.

I have often wondered if butterflies live long enough to be blissful of blue skies. Do they take time to feast upon the sweet nectar they crave, midst their hustling life of pollinating pretty flowers? Do they ever take a lull in their itineraries, or are they always rushing towards completing their four-stage metamorphosis? Has anyone asked the butterfly, “Who are you?” instead of “What are you”? Or, How did you get here, on my windowsill?  How did you become ‘you’?

Humans are similar to butterflies. As a caterpillar

Suzanna Ruby/Getty Images

becomes a butterfly, a baby becomes an elder. As a butterfly soars through summer skies, an elder watches summer skies turn into cold winter nights and back toward summer skies yet again.  And as a butterfly flits slowly by the porch light, a passerby makes assumptions about the wrinkled, slow-moving elder, who is sturdier than he appears. These creatures are not seen for who they are—who they were—because people have “better things to do” or they are too busy to ask, “How are you”?

Our world can be a lonely place. Pressured by expectations, haunted by dreams, overpowered by weakness, and drowned out by lofty goals, we tend to forget ourselves—and others. Rather than hang onto the strands of our diminishing sanity, we might benefit from listening to our elders. Many elders have experienced setbacks in their young lives. Overcoming hardship and surviving to old age is wisdom that they carry.  We can learn from them—and can even make their day by taking the time to hear their stories.  

Nancy Hill, who wrote the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” was right: “We live among such remarkable people, yet few know their stories.” I know a lot about my grandmother’s life, and it isn’t as serene as my own. My grandmother, Liza, who cooks every day, bakes bread on holidays for our neighbors, brings gifts to her doctor out of the kindness of her heart, and makes conversation with neighbors even though she is isn’t fluent in English—Russian is her first language—has struggled all her life. Her mother, Anna, a single parent, had tuberculosis, and even though she had an inviolable spirit, she was too frail to care for four children. She passed away when my grandmother was sixteen, so my grandmother and her siblings spent most of their childhood in an orphanage. My grandmother got married at nineteen to my grandfather, Pinhas. He was a man who loved her more than he loved himself and was a godsend to every person he met. Liza was—and still is—always quick to do what was best for others, even if that person treated her poorly. My grandmother has lived with physical pain all her life, yet she pushed herself to climb heights that she wasn’t ready for. Against all odds, she has lived to tell her story to people who are willing to listen. And I always am.

I asked my grandmother, “What are three things most important to you?” Her answer was one that I already expected: One, for everyone to live long healthy lives. Two, for you to graduate from college. Three, for you to always remember that I love you.

What may be basic to you means the world to my grandmother. She just wants what she never had the chance to experience: a healthy life, an education, and the chance to express love to the people she values. The three things that matter most to her may be so simple and ordinary to outsiders, but to her, it is so much more. And who could take that away?

Antonia Mills was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and attends Rachel Carson High School.  Antonia enjoys creative activities, including writing, painting, reading, and baking. She hopes to pursue culinary arts professionally in the future. One of her favorite quotes is, “When you start seeing your worth, you’ll find it harder to stay around people who don’t.” -Emily S.P.  

  Powerful Voice Winner

   Isaac Ziemba

Odyssey Multiage Program, Bainbridge Island, Wash. 

This Former State Trooper Has His Priorities Straight: Family, Climate Change, and Integrity

I have a personal connection to people who served in the military and first responders. My uncle is a first responder on the island I live on, and my dad retired from the Navy. That was what made a man named Glen Tyrell, a state trooper for 25 years, 2 months and 9 days, my first choice to interview about what three things matter in life. In the YES! Magazine article “The Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” I learned that old and young people have a great deal in common. I know that’s true because Glen and I care about a lot of the same things.

For Glen, family is at the top of his list of important things. “My wife was, and is, always there for me. My daughters mean the world to me, too, but Penny is my partner,” Glen said. I can understand why Glen’s wife is so important to him. She’s family. Family will always be there for you.

Glen loves his family, and so do I with all my heart. My dad especially means the world to me. He is my top supporter and tells me that if I need help, just “say the word.” When we are fishing or crabbing, sometimes I

think, what if these times were erased from my memory? I wouldn’t be able to describe the horrible feeling that would rush through my mind, and I’m sure that Glen would feel the same about his wife.

My uncle once told me that the world is always going to change over time. It’s what the world has turned out to be that worries me. Both Glen and I are extremely concerned about climate change and the effect that rising temperatures have on animals and their habitats. We’re driving them to extinction. Some people might say, “So what? Animals don’t pay taxes or do any of the things we do.” What we are doing to them is like the Black Death times 100.

Glen is also frustrated by how much plastic we use and where it ends up. He would be shocked that an explorer recently dived to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean—seven miles!— and discovered a plastic bag and candy wrappers. Glen told me that, unfortunately, his generation did the damage and my generation is here to fix it. We need to take better care of Earth because if we don’t, we, as a species, will have failed.

Both Glen and I care deeply for our families and the earth, but for our third important value, I chose education and Glen chose integrity. My education is super important to me because without it, I would be a blank slate. I wouldn’t know how to figure out problems. I wouldn’t be able to tell right from wrong. I wouldn’t understand the Bill of Rights. I would be stuck. Everyone should be able to go to school, no matter where they’re from or who they are.  It makes me angry and sad to think that some people, especially girls, get shot because they are trying to go to school. I understand how lucky I am.

Integrity is sacred to Glen—I could tell by the serious tone of Glen’s voice when he told me that integrity was the code he lived by as a former state trooper. He knew that he had the power to change a person’s life, and he was committed to not abusing that power.  When Glen put someone under arrest—and my uncle says the same—his judgment and integrity were paramount. “Either you’re right or you’re wrong.” You can’t judge a person by what you think, you can only judge a person from what you know.”

I learned many things about Glen and what’s important in life, but there is one thing that stands out—something Glen always does and does well. Glen helps people. He did it as a state trooper, and he does it in our school, where he works on construction projects. Glen told me that he believes that our most powerful tools are writing and listening to others. I think those tools are important, too, but I also believe there are other tools to help solve many of our problems and create a better future: to be compassionate, to create caring relationships, and to help others. Just like Glen Tyrell does each and every day.

Isaac Ziemba is in seventh grade at the Odyssey Multiage Program on a small island called Bainbridge near Seattle, Washington. Isaac’s favorite subject in school is history because he has always been interested in how the past affects the future. In his spare time, you can find Isaac hunting for crab with his Dad, looking for artifacts around his house with his metal detector, and having fun with his younger cousin, Conner.     

Lily Hersch

 The Crest Academy, Salida, Colo.

The Phone Call

Dear Grandpa,

In my short span of life—12 years so far—you’ve taught me a lot of important life lessons that I’ll always have with me. Some of the values I talk about in this writing I’ve learned from you.

Dedicated to my Gramps.

In the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” author and photographer Nancy Hill asked people to name the three things that mattered most to them. After reading the essay prompt for the article, I immediately knew who I wanted to interview: my grandpa Gil.      

My grandpa was born on January 25, 1942. He lived in a minuscule tenement in The Bronx with his mother,

father, and brother. His father wasn’t around much, and, when he was, he was reticent and would snap occasionally, revealing his constrained mental pain. My grandpa says this happened because my great grandfather did not have a father figure in his life. His mother was a classy, sharp lady who was the head secretary at a local police district station. My grandpa and his brother Larry did not care for each other. Gramps said he was very close to his mother, and Larry wasn’t. Perhaps Larry was envious for what he didn’t have.

Decades after little to no communication with his brother, my grandpa decided to spontaneously visit him in Florida, where he resided with his wife. Larry was taken aback at the sudden reappearance of his brother and told him to leave. Since then, the two brothers have not been in contact. My grandpa doesn’t even know if Larry is alive.         

My grandpa is now a retired lawyer, married to my wonderful grandma, and living in a pretty house with an ugly dog named BoBo.

So, what’s important to you, Gramps?

He paused a second, then replied, “Family, kindness, and empathy.”

“Family, because it’s my family. It’s important to stay connected with your family. My brother, father, and I never connected in the way I wished, and sometimes I contemplated what could’ve happened.  But you can’t change the past. So, that’s why family’s important to me.”

Family will always be on my “Top Three Most Important Things” list, too. I can’t imagine not having my older brother, Zeke, or my grandma in my life. I wonder how other kids feel about their families? How do kids trapped and separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border feel?  What about orphans? Too many questions, too few answers.

“Kindness, because growing up and not seeing a lot of kindness made me realize how important it is to have that in the world. Kindness makes the world go round.”

What is kindness? Helping my brother, Eli, who has Down syndrome, get ready in the morning? Telling people what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear? Maybe, for now, I’ll put wisdom, not kindness, on my list.

“Empathy, because of all the killings and shootings [in this country.] We also need to care for people—people who are not living in as good circumstances as I have. Donald Trump and other people I’ve met have no empathy. Empathy is very important.”

Empathy is something I’ve felt my whole life. It’ll always be important to me like it is important to my grandpa. My grandpa shows his empathy when he works with disabled children. Once he took a disabled child to a Christina Aguilera concert because that child was too young to go by himself. The moments I feel the most empathy are when Eli gets those looks from people. Seeing Eli wonder why people stare at him like he’s a freak makes me sad, and annoyed that they have the audacity to stare.

After this 2 minute and 36-second phone call, my grandpa has helped me define what’s most important to me at this time in my life: family, wisdom, and empathy. Although these things are important now, I realize they can change and most likely will.

When I’m an old woman, I envision myself scrambling through a stack of storage boxes and finding this paper. Perhaps after reading words from my 12-year-old self, I’ll ask myself “What’s important to me?”

Lily Hersch is a sixth-grader at Crest Academy in Salida, Colorado. Lily is an avid indoorsman, finding joy in competitive spelling, art, and of course, writing. She does not like Swiss cheese.

  “Tell It Like It Is” Interview Winner

Jonas Buckner

KIPP: Gaston College Preparatory, Gaston, N.C.

Lessons My Nana Taught Me

I walked into the house. In the other room, I heard my cousin screaming at his game. There were a lot of Pioneer Woman dishes everywhere. The room had the television on max volume. The fan in the other room was on. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to learn something powerful.

I was in my Nana’s house, and when I walked in, she said, “Hey Monkey Butt.”

I said, “Hey Nana.”

Before the interview, I was talking to her about what I was gonna interview her on. Also, I had asked her why I might have wanted to interview her, and she responded with, “Because you love me, and I love you too.”

Now, it was time to start the interview. The first

question I asked was the main and most important question ever: “What three things matter most to you and you only?”

She thought of it very thoughtfully and responded with, “My grandchildren, my children, and my health.”

Then, I said, “OK, can you please tell me more about your health?”

She responded with, “My health is bad right now. I have heart problems, blood sugar, and that’s about it.” When she said it, she looked at me and smiled because she loved me and was happy I chose her to interview.

I replied with, “K um, why is it important to you?”

She smiled and said, “Why is it…Why is my health important? Well, because I want to live a long time and see my grandchildren grow up.”

I was scared when she said that, but she still smiled. I was so happy, and then I said, “Has your health always been important to you.”

She responded with “Nah.”

Then, I asked, “Do you happen to have a story to help me understand your reasoning?”

She said, “No, not really.”

Now we were getting into the next set of questions. I said, “Remember how you said that your grandchildren matter to you? Can you please tell me why they matter to you?”

Then, she responded with, “So I can spend time with them, play with them, and everything.”

Next, I asked the same question I did before: “Have you always loved your grandchildren?” 

She responded with, “Yes, they have always been important to me.”

Then, the next two questions I asked she had no response to at all. She was very happy until I asked, “Why do your children matter most to you?”

She had a frown on and responded, “My daughter Tammy died a long time ago.”

Then, at this point, the other questions were answered the same as the other ones. When I left to go home I was thinking about how her answers were similar to mine. She said health, and I care about my health a lot, and I didn’t say, but I wanted to. She also didn’t have answers for the last two questions on each thing, and I was like that too.

The lesson I learned was that no matter what, always keep pushing because even though my aunt or my Nana’s daughter died, she kept on pushing and loving everyone. I also learned that everything should matter to us. Once again, I chose to interview my Nana because she matters to me, and I know when she was younger she had a lot of things happen to her, so I wanted to know what she would say. The point I’m trying to make is that be grateful for what you have and what you have done in life.

Jonas Buckner is a sixth-grader at KIPP: Gaston College Preparatory in Gaston, North Carolina. Jonas’ favorite activities are drawing, writing, math, piano, and playing AltSpace VR. He found his passion for writing in fourth grade when he wrote a quick autobiography. Jonas hopes to become a horror writer someday.

From The Author: Responses to Student Winners

Dear Emily, Isaac, Antonia, Rory, Praethong, Amanda, Lily, and Jonas,

Your thought-provoking essays sent my head spinning. The more I read, the more impressed I was with the depth of thought, beauty of expression, and originality. It left me wondering just how to capture all of my reactions in a single letter. After multiple false starts, I’ve landed on this: I will stick to the theme of three most important things.

The three things I found most inspirational about your essays:

You listened.

You connected.

We live in troubled times. Tensions mount between countries, cultures, genders, religious beliefs, and generations. If we fail to find a way to understand each other, to see similarities between us, the future will be fraught with increased hostility.

You all took critical steps toward connecting with someone who might not value the same things you do by asking a person who is generations older than you what matters to them. Then, you listened to their answers. You saw connections between what is important to them and what is important to you. Many of you noted similarities, others wondered if your own list of the three most important things would change as you go through life. You all saw the validity of the responses you received and looked for reasons why your interviewees have come to value what they have.

It is through these things—asking, listening, and connecting—that we can begin to bridge the differences in experiences and beliefs that are currently dividing us.

Individual observations

Each one of you made observations that all of us, regardless of age or experience, would do well to keep in mind. I chose one quote from each person and trust those reading your essays will discover more valuable insights.

“Our priorities may seem different, but they come back to basic human needs. We all desire a purpose, strive to be happy, and work to make a positive impact.” 

“You can’t judge a person by what you think , you can only judge a person by what you know .”

Emily (referencing your interviewee, who is battling cancer):

“Master Chief Petty Officer James has shown me how to appreciate what I have around me.”

Lily (quoting your grandfather):

“Kindness makes the world go round.”

“Everything should matter to us.”

Praethong (quoting your interviewee, Sandra, on the importance of family):

“It’s important to always maintain that connection you have with each other, your family, not just next-door neighbors you talk to once a month.”

“I wonder if maybe we relearn what is most important when we grow older. That the pressure to be successful subsides and that valuing family, health, and happiness is what ends up saving the world.”

“Listen to what others have to say. Listen to the people who have already experienced hardship. You will learn from them and you can even make their day by giving them a chance to voice their thoughts.”

I end this letter to you with the hope that you never stop asking others what is most important to them and that you to continue to take time to reflect on what matters most to you…and why. May you never stop asking, listening, and connecting with others, especially those who may seem to be unlike you. Keep writing, and keep sharing your thoughts and observations with others, for your ideas are awe-inspiring.

I also want to thank the more than 1,000 students who submitted essays. Together, by sharing what’s important to us with others, especially those who may believe or act differently, we can fill the world with joy, peace, beauty, and love.

We received many outstanding essays for the Winter 2019 Student Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye:

Whether it is a painting on a milky canvas with watercolors or pasting photos onto a scrapbook with her granddaughters, it is always a piece of artwork to her. She values the things in life that keep her in the moment, while still exploring things she may not have initially thought would bring her joy.

—Ondine Grant-Krasno, Immaculate Heart Middle School, Los Angeles, Calif.

“Ganas”… It means “desire” in Spanish. My ganas is fueled by my family’s belief in me. I cannot and will not fail them. 

—Adan Rios, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

I hope when I grow up I can have the love for my kids like my grandma has for her kids. She makes being a mother even more of a beautiful thing than it already is.

—Ashley Shaw, Columbus City Prep School for Girls, Grove City, Ohio

You become a collage of little pieces of your friends and family. They also encourage you to be the best you can be. They lift you up onto the seat of your bike, they give you the first push, and they don’t hesitate to remind you that everything will be alright when you fall off and scrape your knee.

— Cecilia Stanton, Bellafonte Area Middle School, Bellafonte, Pa.

Without good friends, I wouldn’t know what I would do to endure the brutal machine of public education.

—Kenneth Jenkins, Garrison Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.

My dog, as ridiculous as it may seem, is a beautiful example of what we all should aspire to be. We should live in the moment, not stress, and make it our goal to lift someone’s spirits, even just a little.

—Kate Garland, Immaculate Heart Middle School, Los Angeles, Calif. 

I strongly hope that every child can spare more time to accompany their elderly parents when they are struggling, and moving forward, and give them more care and patience. so as to truly achieve the goal of “you accompany me to grow up, and I will accompany you to grow old.”

—Taiyi Li, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

I have three cats, and they are my brothers and sisters. We share a special bond that I think would not be possible if they were human. Since they do not speak English, we have to find other ways to connect, and I think that those other ways can be more powerful than language.

—Maya Dombroskie, Delta Program Middle School, Boulsburg, Pa.

We are made to love and be loved. To have joy and be relational. As a member of the loneliest generation in possibly all of history, I feel keenly aware of the need for relationships and authentic connection. That is why I decided to talk to my grandmother.

—Luke Steinkamp, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

After interviewing my grandma and writing my paper, I realized that as we grow older, the things that are important to us don’t change, what changes is why those things are important to us.

—Emily Giffer, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

The media works to marginalize elders, often isolating them and their stories, and the wealth of knowledge that comes with their additional years of lived experiences. It also undermines the depth of children’s curiosity and capacity to learn and understand. When the worlds of elders and children collide, a classroom opens.

—Cristina Reitano, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.

My values, although similar to my dad, only looked the same in the sense that a shadow is similar to the object it was cast on.

—Timofey Lisenskiy, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, Calif.

I can release my anger through writing without having to take it out on someone. I can escape and be a different person; it feels good not to be myself for a while. I can make up my own characters, so I can be someone different every day, and I think that’s pretty cool.

—Jasua Carillo, Wellness, Business, and Sports School, Woodburn, Ore. 

Notice how all the important things in his life are people: the people who he loves and who love him back. This is because “people are more important than things like money or possessions, and families are treasures,” says grandpa Pat. And I couldn’t agree more.

—Brody Hartley, Garrison Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.  

Curiosity for other people’s stories could be what is needed to save the world.

—Noah Smith, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

Peace to me is a calm lake without a ripple in sight. It’s a starry night with a gentle breeze that pillows upon your face. It’s the absence of arguments, fighting, or war. It’s when egos stop working against each other and finally begin working with each other. Peace is free from fear, anxiety, and depression. To me, peace is an important ingredient in the recipe of life.

—JP Bogan, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

From A Teacher

Charles Sanderson

Wellness, Business and Sports School, Woodburn, Ore. 

The Birthday Gift

I’ve known Jodelle for years, watching her grow from a quiet and timid twelve-year-old to a young woman who just returned from India, where she played Kabaddi, a kind of rugby meets Red Rover.

One of my core beliefs as an educator is to show up for the things that matter to kids, so I go to their games, watch their plays, and eat the strawberry jam they make for the county fair. On this occasion, I met Jodelle at a robotics competition to watch her little sister Abby compete. Think Nerd Paradise: more hats made from traffic cones than Golden State Warrior ball caps, more unicorn capes than Nike swooshes, more fanny packs with Legos than clutches with eyeliner.

We started chatting as the crowd chanted and waved six-foot flags for teams like Mystic Biscuits, Shrek, and everyone’s nemesis The Mean Machine. Apparently, when it’s time for lunch at a robotics competition, they don’t mess around. The once-packed gym was left to Jodelle and me, and we kept talking and talking. I eventually asked her about the three things that matter to her most.

She told me about her mom, her sister, and her addiction—to horses. I’ve read enough of her writing to know that horses were her drug of choice and her mom and sister were her support network.

I learned about her desire to become a teacher and how hours at the barn with her horse, Heart, recharge her when she’s exhausted. At one point, our rambling conversation turned to a topic I’ve known far too well—her father.

Later that evening, I received an email from Jodelle, and she had a lot to say. One line really struck me: “In so many movies, I have seen a dad wanting to protect his daughter from the world, but I’ve only understood the scene cognitively. Yesterday, I felt it.”

Long ago, I decided that I would never be a dad. I had seen movies with fathers and daughters, and for me, those movies might as well have been Star Wars, ET, or Alien—worlds filled with creatures I’d never know. However, over the years, I’ve attended Jodelle’s parent-teacher conferences, gone to her graduation, and driven hours to watch her ride Heart at horse shows. Simply, I showed up. I listened. I supported.

Jodelle shared a series of dad poems, as well. I had read the first two poems in their original form when Jodelle was my student. The revised versions revealed new graphic details of her past. The third poem, however, was something entirely different.

She called the poems my early birthday present. When I read the lines “You are my father figure/Who I look up to/Without being looked down on,” I froze for an instant and had to reread the lines. After fifty years of consciously deciding not to be a dad, I was seen as one—and it felt incredible. Jodelle’s poem and recognition were two of the best presents I’ve ever received.

I  know that I was the language arts teacher that Jodelle needed at the time, but her poem revealed things I never knew I taught her: “My father figure/ Who taught me/ That listening is for observing the world/ That listening is for learning/Not obeying/Writing is for connecting/Healing with others.”

Teaching is often a thankless job, one that frequently brings more stress and anxiety than joy and hope. Stress erodes my patience. Anxiety curtails my ability to enter each interaction with every student with the grace they deserve. However, my time with Jodelle reminds me of the importance of leaning in and listening.

In the article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age” by Nancy Hill, she illuminates how we “live among such remarkable people, yet few know their stories.” For the last twenty years, I’ve had the privilege to work with countless of these “remarkable people,” and I’ve done my best to listen, and, in so doing, I hope my students will realize what I’ve known for a long time; their voices matter and deserve to be heard, but the voices of their tias and abuelitos and babushkas are equally important. When we take the time to listen, I believe we do more than affirm the humanity of others; we affirm our own as well.

Charles Sanderson has grounded his nineteen-year teaching career in a philosophy he describes as “Mirror, Window, Bridge.” Charles seeks to ensure all students see themselves, see others, and begin to learn the skills to build bridges of empathy, affinity, and understanding between communities and cultures that may seem vastly different. He proudly teaches at the Wellness, Business and Sports School in Woodburn, Oregon, a school and community that brings him joy and hope on a daily basis.

From   The Author: Response to Charles Sanderson

Dear Charles Sanderson,

Thank you for submitting an essay of your own in addition to encouraging your students to participate in YES! Magazine’s essay contest.

Your essay focused not on what is important to you, but rather on what is important to one of your students. You took what mattered to her to heart, acting upon it by going beyond the school day and creating a connection that has helped fill a huge gap in her life. Your efforts will affect her far beyond her years in school. It is clear that your involvement with this student is far from the only time you have gone beyond the classroom, and while you are not seeking personal acknowledgment, I cannot help but applaud you.

In an ideal world, every teacher, every adult, would show the same interest in our children and adolescents that you do. By taking the time to listen to what is important to our youth, we can help them grow into compassionate, caring adults, capable of making our world a better place.

Your concerted efforts to guide our youth to success not only as students but also as human beings is commendable. May others be inspired by your insights, concerns, and actions. You define excellence in teaching.

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Is Abortion Sacred?

By Jia Tolentino

Twenty years ago, when I was thirteen, I wrote an entry in my journal about abortion, which began, “I have this huge thing weighing on me.” That morning, in Bible class, which I’d attended every day since the first grade at an evangelical school, in Houston, my teacher had led us in an exercise called Agree/Disagree. He presented us with moral propositions, and we stood up and physically chose sides. “Abortion is always wrong,” he offered, and there was no disagreement. We all walked to the wall that meant “agree.”

Then I raised my hand and, according to my journal, said, “I think it is always morally wrong and absolutely murder, but if a woman is raped, I respect her right to get an abortion.” Also, I said, if a woman knew the child would face a terrible life, the child might be better off. “Dead?” the teacher asked. My classmates said I needed to go to the other side, and I did. “I felt guilty and guilty and guilty,” I wrote in my journal. “I didn’t feel like a Christian when I was on that side of the room. I felt terrible, actually. . . . But I still have that thought that if a woman was raped, she has her right. But that’s so strange—she has a right to kill what would one day be her child? That issue is irresolved in my mind and it will eat at me until I sort it out.”

I had always thought of abortion as it had been taught to me in school: it was a sin that irresponsible women committed to cover up another sin, having sex in a non-Christian manner. The moral universe was a stark battle of virtue and depravity, in which the only meaningful question about any possible action was whether or not it would be sanctioned in the eyes of God. Men were sinful, and the goodness of women was the essential bulwark against the corruption of the world. There was suffering built into this framework, but suffering was noble; justice would prevail, in the end, because God always provided for the faithful. It was these last tenets, prosperity-gospel principles that neatly erase the material causes of suffering in our history and our social policies—not only regarding abortion but so much else—which toppled for me first. By the time I went to college, I understood that I was pro-choice.

America is, in many ways, a deeply religious country—the only wealthy Western democracy in which more than half of the population claims to pray every day. (In Europe, the figure is twenty-two per cent.) Although seven out of ten American women who get abortions identify as Christian, the fight to make the procedure illegal is an almost entirely Christian phenomenon. Two-thirds of the national population and nearly ninety per cent of Congress affirm a tradition in which a teen-age girl continuing an unplanned pregnancy allowed for the salvation of the world, in which a corrupt government leader who demanded a Massacre of the Innocents almost killed the baby Jesus and damned us all in the process, and in which the Son of God entered the world as what the godless dare to call a “clump of cells.”

For centuries, most Christians believed that human personhood began months into the long course of pregnancy. It was only in the twentieth century that a dogmatic narrative, in which every pregnancy is an iteration of the same static story of creation, began both to shape American public policy and to occlude the reality of pregnancy as volatile and ambiguous—as a process in which creation and destruction run in tandem. This newer narrative helped to erase an instinctive, long-held understanding that pregnancy does not begin with the presence of a child, and only sometimes ends with one. Even within the course of the same pregnancy, a person and the fetus she carries can shift between the roles of lover and beloved, host and parasite, vessel and divinity, victim and murderer; each body is capable of extinguishing the other, although one cannot survive alone. There is no human relationship more complex, more morally unstable than this.

The idea that a fetus is not just a full human but a superior and kinglike one—a being whose survival is so paramount that another person can be legally compelled to accept harm, ruin, or death to insure it—is a recent invention. For most of history, women ended unwanted pregnancies as they needed to, taking herbal or plant-derived preparations on their own or with the help of female healers and midwives, who presided over all forms of treatment and care connected with pregnancy. They were likely enough to think that they were simply restoring their menstruation, treating a blockage of blood. Pregnancy was not confirmed until “quickening,” the point at which the pregnant person could feel fetal movement, a measurement that relied on her testimony. Then as now, there was often nothing that distinguished the result of an abortion—the body expelling fetal tissue—from a miscarriage.

Ancient records of abortifacient medicine are plentiful; ancient attempts to regulate abortion are rare. What regulations existed reflect concern with women’s behavior and marital propriety, not with fetal life. The Code of the Assura, from the eleventh century B.C.E., mandated death for married women who got abortions without consulting their husbands; when husbands beat their wives hard enough to make them miscarry, the punishment was a fine. The first known Roman prohibition on abortion dates to the second century and prescribes exile for a woman who ends her pregnancy, because “it might appear scandalous that she should be able to deny her husband of children without being punished.” Likewise, the early Christian Church opposed abortion not as an act of murder but because of its association with sexual sin. (The Bible offers ambiguous guidance on the question of when life begins: Genesis 2:7 arguably implies that it begins at first breath; Exodus 21:22-24 suggests that, in Old Testament law, a fetus was not considered a person; Jeremiah 1:5 describes God’s hand in creation even “before I formed you in the womb.” Nowhere does the Bible clearly and directly address abortion.) Augustine, in the fourth century, favored the idea that God endowed a fetus with a soul only after its body was formed—a point that Augustine placed, in line with Aristotelian tradition, somewhere between forty and eighty days into its development. “There cannot yet be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation when it is not formed in flesh, and so not yet endowed with sense,” he wrote. This was more or less the Church’s official position; it was affirmed eight centuries later by Thomas Aquinas.

In the early modern era, European attitudes began to change. The Black Death had dramatically lowered the continent’s population, and dealt a blow to most forms of economic activity; the Reformation had weakened the Church’s position as the essential intermediary between the layman and God. The social scientist Silvia Federici has argued, in her book “ Caliban and the Witch ,” that church and state waged deliberate campaigns to force women to give birth, in service of the emerging capitalist economy. “Starting in the mid-16th century, while Portuguese ships were returning from Africa with their first human cargoes, all the European governments began to impose the severest penalties against contraception, abortion, and infanticide,” Federici notes. Midwives and “wise women” were prosecuted for witchcraft, a catchall crime for deviancy from procreative sex. For the first time, male doctors began to control labor and delivery, and, Federici writes, “in the case of a medical emergency” they “prioritized the life of the fetus over that of the mother.” She goes on: “While in the Middle Ages women had been able to use various forms of contraceptives, and had exercised an undisputed control over the birthing process, from now on their wombs became public territory, controlled by men and the state.”

Martin Luther and John Calvin, the most influential figures of the Reformation, did not address abortion at any length. But Catholic doctrine started to shift, albeit slowly. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V labelled both abortion and contraception as homicide. This pronouncement was reversed three years later, by Pope Gregory XIV, who declared that abortion was only homicide if it took place after ensoulment, which he identified as occurring around twenty-four weeks into a pregnancy. Still, theologians continued to push the idea of embryonic humanity; in 1621, the physician Paolo Zacchia, an adviser to the Vatican, proclaimed that the soul was present from the moment of conception. Still, it was not until 1869 that Pope Pius IX affirmed this doctrine, proclaiming abortion at any point in pregnancy to be a sin punishable by excommunication.

When I found out I was pregnant, at the beginning of 2020, I wondered how the experience would change my understanding of life, of fetal personhood, of the morality of reproduction. It’s been years since I traded the echo chamber of evangelical Texas for the echo chamber of progressive Brooklyn, but I can still sometimes feel the old world view flickering, a photographic negative underneath my vision. I have come to believe that abortion should be universally accessible, regulated only by medical codes and ethics, and not by the criminal-justice system. Still, in passing moments, I can imagine upholding the idea that our sole task when it comes to protecting life is to end the practice of abortion; I can imagine that seeming profoundly moral and unbelievably urgent. I would only need to think of the fetus in total isolation—to imagine that it were not formed and contained by another body, and that body not formed and contained by a family, or a society, or a world.

As happens to many women, though, I became, if possible, more militant about the right to an abortion in the process of pregnancy, childbirth, and caregiving. It wasn’t just the difficult things that had this effect—the paralyzing back spasms, the ragged desperation of sleeplessness, the thundering doom that pervaded every cell in my body when I weaned my child. And it wasn’t just my newly visceral understanding of the anguish embedded in the facts of American family life. (A third of parents in one of the richest countries in the world struggle to afford diapers ; in the first few months of the pandemic , as Jeff Bezos’s net worth rose by forty-eight billion dollars, sixteen per cent of households with children did not have enough to eat.) What multiplied my commitment to abortion were the beautiful things about motherhood: in particular, the way I felt able to love my baby fully and singularly because I had chosen to give my body and life over to her. I had not been forced by law to make another person with my flesh, or to tear that flesh open to bring her into the world; I hadn’t been driven by need to give that new person away to a stranger in the hope that she would never go to bed hungry. I had been able to choose this permanent rearrangement of my existence. That volition felt sacred.

Abortion is often talked about as a grave act that requires justification, but bringing a new life into the world felt, to me, like the decision that more clearly risked being a moral mistake. The debate about abortion in America is “rooted in the largely unacknowledged premise that continuing a pregnancy is a prima facie moral good,” the pro-choice Presbyterian minister Rebecca Todd Peters writes . But childbearing, Peters notes, is a morally weighted act, one that takes place in a world of limited and unequally distributed resources. Many people who get abortions—the majority of whom are poor women who already have children—understand this perfectly well. “We ought to take the decision to continue a pregnancy far more seriously than we do,” Peters writes.

I gave birth in the middle of a pandemic that previewed a future of cross-species viral transmission exacerbated by global warming, and during a summer when ten million acres on the West Coast burned . I knew that my child would not only live in this degrading world but contribute to that degradation. (“Every year, the average American emits enough carbon to melt ten thousand tons of ice in the Antarctic ice sheets,” David Wallace-Wells writes in his book “ The Uninhabitable Earth .”) Just before COVID arrived, the science writer Meehan Crist published an essay in the London Review of Books titled “Is it OK to have a child?” (The title alludes to a question that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once asked in a live stream, on Instagram.) Crist details the environmental damage that we are doing, and the costs for the planet and for us and for those who will come after. Then she turns the question on its head. The idea of choosing whether or not to have a child, she writes, is predicated on a fantasy of control that “quickly begins to dissipate when we acknowledge that the conditions for human flourishing are distributed so unevenly, and that, in an age of ecological catastrophe, we face a range of possible futures in which these conditions no longer reliably exist.”

In late 2021, as Omicron brought New York to another COVID peak, a Gen Z boy in a hoodie uploaded a TikTok , captioned “yall better delete them baby names out ya notes its 60 degrees in december.” By then, my baby had become a toddler. Every night, as I set her in the crib, she chirped good night to the elephants, koalas, and tigers on the wall, and I tried not to think about extinction. My decision to have her risked, or guaranteed, additional human suffering; it opened up new chances for joy and meaning. There is unknowability in every reproductive choice.

As the German historian Barbara Duden writes in her book “ Disembodying Women ,” the early Christians believed that both the bodies that created life and the world that sustained it were proof of the “continual creative activity of God.” Women and nature were aligned, in this view, as the material sources of God’s plan. “The word nature is derived from nascitura , which means ‘birthing,’ and nature is imagined and felt to be like a pregnant womb, a matrix, a mother,” Duden writes. But, in recent decades, she notes, the natural world has begun to show its irreparable damage. The fetus has been left as a singular totem of life and divinity, to be protected, no matter the costs, even if everything else might fall.

The scholar Katie Gentile argues that, in times of cultural crisis and upheaval, the fetus functions as a “site of projected and displaced anxieties,” a “fantasy of wholeness in the face of overwhelming anxiety and an inability to have faith in a progressive, better future.” The more degraded actual life becomes on earth, the more fervently conservatives will fight to protect potential life in utero. We are locked into the destruction of the world that birthed all of us; we turn our attention, now, to the worlds—the wombs—we think we can still control.

By the time that the Catholic Church decided that abortion at any point, for any reason, was a sin, scientists had identified the biological mechanism behind human reproduction, in which a fetus develops from an embryo that develops from a zygote, the single-celled organism created by the union of egg and sperm. With this discovery, in the mid-nineteenth century, women lost the most crucial point of authority over the stories of their pregnancies. Other people would be the ones to tell us, from then on, when life began.

At the time, abortion was largely unregulated in the United States, a country founded and largely populated by Protestants. But American physicians, through the then newly formed American Medical Association, mounted a campaign to criminalize it, led by a gynecologist named Horatio Storer, who once described the typical abortion patient as a “wretch whose account with the Almighty is heaviest with guilt.” (Storer was raised Unitarian but later converted to Catholicism.) The scholars Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon have argued that these doctors, whose profession was not as widely respected as it would later become, used abortion “as a wedge issue,” one that helped them portray their work “as morally and professionally superior to the practice of midwifery.” By 1910, abortion was illegal in every state, with exceptions only to save the life of “the mother.” (The wording of such provisions referred to all pregnant people as mothers, whether or not they had children, thus quietly inserting a presumption of fetal personhood.) A series of acts known as the Comstock laws had rendered contraception, abortifacient medicine, and information about reproductive control widely inaccessible, by criminalizing their distribution via the U.S. Postal Service. People still sought abortions, of course: in the early years of the Great Depression, there were as many as seven hundred thousand abortions annually. These underground procedures were dangerous; several thousand women died from abortions every year.

This is when the contemporary movements for and against the right to abortion took shape. Those who favored legal abortion did not, in these years, emphasize “choice,” Daniel K. Williams notes in his book “ Defenders of the Unborn .” They emphasized protecting the health of women, protecting doctors, and preventing the births of unwanted children. Anti-abortion activists, meanwhile, argued, as their successors do, that they were defending human life and human rights. The horrors of the Second World War gave the movement a lasting analogy: “Logic would lead us from abortion to the gas chamber,” a Catholic clergyman wrote, in October, 1962.

Ultrasound imaging, invented in the nineteen-fifties, completed the transformation of pregnancy into a story that, by default, was narrated to women by other people—doctors, politicians, activists. In 1965, Life magazine published a photo essay by Lennart Nilsson called “ Drama of Life Before Birth ,” and put the image of a fetus at eighteen weeks on its cover. The photos produced an indelible, deceptive image of the fetus as an isolated being—a “spaceman,” as Nilsson wrote, floating in a void, entirely independent from the person whose body creates it. They became totems of the anti-abortion movement; Life had not disclosed that all but one had been taken of aborted fetuses, and that Nilsson had lit and posed their bodies to give the impression that they were alive.

In 1967, Colorado became the first state to allow abortion for reasons other than rape, incest, or medical emergency. A group of Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis began operating an abortion-referral service led by the pastor of Judson Memorial Church, in Manhattan; the resulting network of pro-choice clerics eventually spanned the country, and referred an estimated four hundred and fifty thousand women to safe abortions. The evangelical magazine Christianity Today held a symposium of prominent theologians, in 1968, which resulted in a striking statement: “Whether or not the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed, but about the necessity and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.” Meanwhile, the priest James McHugh became the director of the National Right to Life Committee, and equated fetuses to the other vulnerable people whom faithful Christians were commanded to protect: the old, the sick, the poor. As states began to liberalize their abortion laws, the anti-abortion movement attracted followers—many of them antiwar, pro-welfare Catholics—using the language of civil rights, and adopted the label “pro-life.”

W. A. Criswell, a Dallas pastor who served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970, said, shortly after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade , that “it was only after a child was born and had life separate from his mother that it became an individual person,” and that “it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and the future should be allowed.” But the Court’s decision accelerated a political and theological transformation that was already under way: by 1979, Criswell, like the S.B.C., had endorsed a hard-line anti-abortion stance. Evangelical leadership, represented by such groups as Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority , joined with Catholics to oppose the secularization of popular culture, becoming firmly conservative—and a powerful force in Republican politics. Bible verses that express the idea of divine creation, such as Psalm 139 (“For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” in the New International Version’s translation), became policy explanations for prohibiting abortion.

In 1984, scientists used ultrasound to detect fetal cardiac activity at around six weeks’ gestation—a discovery that has been termed a “fetal heartbeat” by the anti-abortion movement, though a six-week-old fetus hasn’t yet formed a heart, and the electrical pulses are coming from cell clusters that can be replicated in a petri dish. At six weeks, in fact, medical associations still call the fetus an embryo; as I found out in 2020, you generally can’t even schedule a doctor’s visit to confirm your condition until you’re eight weeks along.

So many things that now shape the cultural experience of pregnancy in America accept and reinforce the terms of the anti-abortion movement, often with the implicit goal of making pregnant women feel special, or encouraging them to buy things. “Your baby,” every app and article whispered to me sweetly, wrongly, many months before I intuited personhood in the being inside me, or felt that the life I was forming had moved out of a liminal realm.

I tried to learn from that liminality. Hope was always predicated on uncertainty; there would be no guarantees of safety in this or any other part of life. Pregnancy did not feel like soft blankets and stuffed bunnies—it felt cosmic and elemental, like volcanic rocks grinding, or a wild plant straining toward the sun. It was violent even as I loved it. “Even with the help of modern medicine, pregnancy still kills about 800 women every day worldwide,” the evolutionary biologist Suzanne Sadedin points out in an essay titled “War in the womb.” Many of the genes that activate during embryonic development also activate when a body has been invaded by cancer, Sadedin notes; in ectopic pregnancies, which are unviable by definition and make up one to two per cent of all pregnancies, embryos become implanted in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus, and “tunnel ferociously toward the richest nutrient source they can find.” The result, Sadedin writes, “is often a bloodbath.”

The Book of Genesis tells us that the pain of childbearing is part of the punishment women have inherited from Eve. The other part is subjugation to men: “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you,” God tells Eve. Tertullian, a second-century theologian, told women, “You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of the (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.” The idea that guilt inheres in female identity persists in anti-abortion logic: anything a woman, or a girl, does with her body can justify the punishment of undesired pregnancy, including simply existing.

If I had become pregnant when I was a thirteen-year-old Texan , I would have believed that abortion was wrong, but I am sure that I would have got an abortion. For one thing, my Christian school did not allow students to be pregnant. I was aware of this, and had, even then, a faint sense that the people around me grasped, in some way, the necessity of abortion—that, even if they believed that abortion meant taking a life, they understood that it could preserve a life, too.

One need not reject the idea that life in the womb exists or that fetal life has meaning in order to favor the right to abortion; one must simply allow that everything, not just abortion, has a moral dimension, and that each pregnancy occurs in such an intricate web of systemic and individual circumstances that only the person who is pregnant could hope to evaluate the situation and make a moral decision among the options at hand. A recent survey found that one-third of Americans believe life begins at conception but also that abortion should be legal. This is the position overwhelmingly held by American Buddhists, whose religious tradition casts abortion as the taking of a human life and regards all forms of life as sacred but also warns adherents against absolutism and urges them to consider the complexity of decreasing suffering, compelling them toward compassion and respect.

There is a Buddhist ritual practiced primarily in Japan, where it is called mizuko kuyo : a ceremony of mourning for miscarriages, stillbirths, and aborted fetuses. The ritual is possibly ersatz; critics say that it fosters and preys upon women’s feelings of guilt. But the scholar William LaFleur argues, in his book “ Liquid Life ,” that it is rooted in a medieval Japanese understanding of the way the unseen world interfaces with the world of humans—in which being born and dying are both “processes rather than fixed points.” An infant was believed to have entered the human world from the realm of the gods, and move clockwise around a wheel as she grew older, eventually passing back into the spirit realm on the other side. But some infants were mizuko , or water babies: floating in fluids, ontologically unstable. These were the babies who were never born. A mizuko , whether miscarried or aborted—and the two words were similar: kaeru , to go back, and kaesu , to cause to go back—slipped back, counterclockwise, across the border to the realm of the gods.

There is a loss, I think, entailed in abortion—as there is in miscarriage, whether it occurs at eight or twelve or twenty-nine weeks. I locate this loss in the irreducible complexity of life itself, in the terrible violence and magnificence of reproduction, in the death that shimmered at the edges of my consciousness in the shattering moment that my daughter was born. This understanding might be rooted in my religious upbringing—I am sure that it is. But I wonder, now, how I would square this: that fetuses were the most precious lives in existence, and that God, in His vision, already chooses to end a quarter of them. The fact that a quarter of women, regardless of their beliefs, also decide to end pregnancies at some point in their lifetimes: are they not acting in accordance with God’s plan for them, too? ♦

More on Abortion and Roe v. Wade

In the post-Roe era, letting pregnant patients get sicker— by design .

The study that debunks most anti-abortion arguments .

Of course the Constitution has nothing to say about abortion .

How the real Jane Roe shaped the abortion wars.

Black feminists defined abortion rights as a matter of equality, not just “choice.”

Recent data suggest that taking abortion pills at home is as safe as going to a clinic. 

When abortion is criminalized, women make desperate choices .

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By James Carroll

By Stephania Taladrid

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

What does Emerson say about self-reliance?

In Emerson's essay “ Self-Reliance ,” he boldly states society (especially today’s politically correct environment) hurts a person’s growth.

Emerson wrote that self-sufficiency gives a person in society the freedom they need to discover their true self and attain their true independence.

Believing that individualism, personal responsibility , and nonconformity were essential to a thriving society. But to get there, Emerson knew that each individual had to work on themselves to achieve this level of individualism. 

Today, we see society's breakdowns daily and wonder how we arrived at this state of society. One can see how the basic concepts of self-trust, self-awareness, and self-acceptance have significantly been ignored.

Who published self-reliance?

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the essay, published in 1841 as part of his first volume of collected essays titled "Essays: First Series."

It would go on to be known as Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance and one of the most well-known pieces of American literature.

The collection was published by James Munroe and Company.

What are the examples of self-reliance?

Examples of self-reliance can be as simple as tying your shoes and as complicated as following your inner voice and not conforming to paths set by society or religion.

Self-reliance can also be seen as getting things done without relying on others, being able to “pull your weight” by paying your bills, and caring for yourself and your family correctly.

Self-reliance involves relying on one's abilities, judgment, and resources to navigate life. Here are more examples of self-reliance seen today:

Entrepreneurship: Starting and running your own business, relying on your skills and determination to succeed.

Financial Independence: Managing your finances responsibly, saving money, and making sound investment decisions to secure your financial future.

Learning and Education: Taking the initiative to educate oneself, whether through formal education, self-directed learning, or acquiring new skills.

Problem-Solving: Tackling challenges independently, finding solutions to problems, and adapting to changing circumstances.

Personal Development: Taking responsibility for personal growth, setting goals, and working towards self-improvement.

Homesteading: Growing your food, raising livestock, or becoming self-sufficient in various aspects of daily life.

DIY Projects: Undertaking do-it-yourself projects, from home repairs to crafting, without relying on external help.

Living Off the Grid: Living independently from public utilities, generating your energy, and sourcing your water.

Decision-Making: Trusting your instincts and making decisions based on your values and beliefs rather than relying solely on external advice.

Crisis Management: Handling emergencies and crises with resilience and resourcefulness without depending on external assistance.

These examples illustrate different facets of self-reliance, emphasizing independence, resourcefulness, and the ability to navigate life autonomously.

What is the purpose of self reliance by Emerson?

In his essay, " Self Reliance, " Emerson's sole purpose is the want for people to avoid conformity. Emerson believed that in order for a man to truly be a man, he was to follow his own conscience and "do his own thing."

Essentially, do what you believe is right instead of blindly following society.

Why is it important to be self reliant?

While getting help from others, including friends and family, can be an essential part of your life and fulfilling. However, help may not always be available, or the assistance you receive may not be what you had hoped for.

It is for this reason that Emerson pushed for self-reliance. If a person were independent, could solve their problems, and fulfill their needs and desires, they would be a more vital member of society.

This can lead to growth in the following areas:

Empowerment: Self-reliance empowers individuals to take control of their lives. It fosters a sense of autonomy and the ability to make decisions independently.

Resilience: Developing self-reliance builds resilience, enabling individuals to bounce back from setbacks and face challenges with greater adaptability.

Personal Growth: Relying on oneself encourages continuous learning and personal growth. It motivates individuals to acquire new skills and knowledge.

Freedom: Self-reliance provides a sense of freedom from external dependencies. It reduces reliance on others for basic needs, decisions, or validation.

Confidence: Achieving goals through one's own efforts boosts confidence and self-esteem. It instills a belief in one's capabilities and strengthens a positive self-image.

Resourcefulness: Being self-reliant encourages resourcefulness. Individuals learn to solve problems creatively, adapt to changing circumstances, and make the most of available resources.

Adaptability: Self-reliant individuals are often more adaptable to change. They can navigate uncertainties with a proactive and positive mindset.

Reduced Stress: Dependence on others can lead to stress and anxiety, especially when waiting for external support. Self-reliance reduces reliance on external factors for emotional well-being.

Personal Responsibility: It promotes a sense of responsibility for one's own life and decisions. Self-reliant individuals are more likely to take ownership of their actions and outcomes.

Goal Achievement: Being self-reliant facilitates the pursuit and achievement of personal and professional goals. It allows individuals to overcome obstacles and stay focused on their objectives.

Overall, self-reliance contributes to personal empowerment, mental resilience, and the ability to lead a fulfilling and purposeful life. While collaboration and support from others are valuable, cultivating a strong sense of self-reliance enhances one's capacity to navigate life's challenges independently.

What did Emerson mean, "Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide"?

According to Emerson, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to you independently, but every person is given a plot of ground to till. 

In other words, Emerson believed that a person's main focus in life is to work on oneself, increasing their maturity and intellect, and overcoming insecurities, which will allow a person to be self-reliant to the point where they no longer envy others but measure themselves against how they were the day before.

When we do become self-reliant, we focus on creating rather than imitating. Being someone we are not is just as damaging to the soul as suicide.

Envy is ignorance: Emerson suggests that feeling envious of others is a form of ignorance. Envy often arises from a lack of understanding or appreciation of one's unique qualities and potential. Instead of being envious, individuals should focus on discovering and developing their talents and strengths.

Imitation is suicide: Emerson extends the idea by stating that imitation, or blindly copying others, is a form of self-destruction. He argues that true individuality and personal growth come from expressing one's unique voice and ideas. In this context, imitation is seen as surrendering one's identity and creativity, leading to a kind of "spiritual death."

What are the transcendental elements in Emerson’s self-reliance?

The five predominant elements of Transcendentalism are nonconformity, self-reliance, free thought, confidence, and the importance of nature.

The Transcendentalism movement emerged in New England between 1820 and 1836. It is essential to differentiate this movement from Transcendental Meditation, a distinct practice.

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Transcendentalism is characterized as "an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson." A central tenet of this movement is the belief that individual purity can be 'corrupted' by society.

Are Emerson's writings referenced in pop culture?

Emerson has made it into popular culture. One such example is in the film Next Stop Wonderland released in 1998. The reference is a quote from Emerson's essay on Self Reliance, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

This becomes a running theme in the film as a single woman (Hope Davis ), who is quite familiar with Emerson's writings and showcases several men taking her on dates, attempting to impress her by quoting the famous line, only to botch the line and also giving attribution to the wrong person. One gentleman says confidently it was W.C. Fields, while another matches the quote with Cicero. One goes as far as stating it was Karl Marx!

Why does Emerson say about self confidence?

Content is coming very soon.

Self-Reliance: The Complete Essay

Ne te quaesiveris extra."

Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate ; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune Cast the bantling on the rocks, Suckle him with the she-wolf's teat; Wintered with the hawk and fox, Power and speed be hands and feet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson became one of America's best known and best-loved 19th-century figures. More About Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson Self Reliance Summary

The essay “Self-Reliance,” written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is, by far, his most famous piece of work. Emerson, a Transcendentalist, believed focusing on the purity and goodness of individualism and community with nature was vital for a strong society. Transcendentalists despise the corruption and conformity of human society and institutions. Published in 1841, the Self Reliance essay is a deep-dive into self-sufficiency as a virtue.

In the essay "Self-Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson advocates for individuals to trust in their own instincts and ideas rather than blindly following the opinions of society and its institutions. He argues that society encourages conformity, stifles individuality, and encourages readers to live authentically and self-sufficient lives.

Emerson also stresses the importance of being self-reliant, relying on one's own abilities and judgment rather than external validation or approval from others. He argues that people must be honest with themselves and seek to understand their own thoughts and feelings rather than blindly following the expectations of others. Through this essay, Emerson emphasizes the value of independence, self-discovery, and personal growth.

What is the Meaning of Self-Reliance?

I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to think that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.

Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light that flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought because it is his. In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Great works of art have no more affecting lessons for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility than most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance that does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Trust Thyself: Every Heart Vibrates To That Iron String.

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, and the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.

What pretty oracles nature yields to us in this text, in the face and behaviour of children, babes, and even brutes! That divided and rebel mind, that distrust of a sentiment because our arithmetic has computed the strength and means opposed to our purpose, these have not. Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in their faces, we are disconcerted. Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force, because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.

The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has once acted or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could pass again into his neutrality! Who can thus avoid all pledges, and having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable. He would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private, but necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men, and put them in fear.

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways. If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy, shall that pass? If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from Barbadoes, why should I not say to him, 'Go love thy infant; love thy wood-chopper: be good-natured and modest: have that grace; and never varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spite at home.' Rough and graceless would be such greeting, but truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. The lintels of the door-post I would write on, Whim . It is somewhat better than whim at last I hope, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company. Then, again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousandfold Relief Societies; — though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.

Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man and his virtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world, — as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. Wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. The primary evidence I ask that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. For myself it makes no difference that I know, whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. The easy thing in the world is to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers, — under all these screens I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are. And, of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. But do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word? With all this ostentation of examining the grounds of the institution, do I not know that he will do no such thing? Do not I know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, — the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister? He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation. Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere. We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression. There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved, but moved by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face with the most disagreeable sensation.

For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face. The by-standers look askance on him in the public street or in the friend's parlour. If this aversation had its origin in contempt and resistance like his own, he might well go home with a sad countenance; but the sour faces of the multitude, like their sweet faces, have no deep cause, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper directs. Yet is the discontent of the multitude more formidable than that of the senate and the college. It is easy enough for a firm man who knows the world to brook the rage of the cultivated classes. Their rage is decorous and prudent, for they are timid as being very vulnerable themselves. But when to their feminine rage the indignation of the people is added, when the ignorant and the poor are aroused, when the unintelligent brute force that lies at the bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a trifle of no concernment.

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

I suppose no man can violate his nature.

All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere. Nor does it matter how you gauge and try him. A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; — read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing. In this pleasing, contrite wood-life which God allows me, let me record day by day my honest thought without prospect or retrospect, and, I cannot doubt, it will be found symmetrical, though I mean it not, and see it not. My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window should interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also. We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills. Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike they seem. These varieties are lost sight of at a little distance, at a little height of thought. One tendency unites them all. The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enough to-day to do right, and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this. What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the field, which so fills the imagination? The consciousness of a train of great days and victories behind. They shed an united light on the advancing actor. He is attended as by a visible escort of angels. That is it which throws thunder into Chatham's voice, and dignity into Washington's port, and America into Adams's eye. Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it today because it is not of today. We love it and pay it homage, because it is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, self-derived, and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree, even if shown in a young person.

I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife. Let us never bow and apologize more. A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; He should wish to please me, that I wish. I will stand here for humanity, and though I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre of things. Where he is, there is nature. He measures you, and all men, and all events. Ordinarily, every body in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes place of the whole creation. The man must be so much, that he must make all circumstances indifferent. Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design; — and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, Monachism, of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called "the height of Rome"; and all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.

Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal, or skulk up and down with the air of a charity-boy, a bastard, or an interloper, in the world which exists for him. But the man in the street, finding no worth in himself which corresponds to the force which built a tower or sculptured a marble god, feels poor when he looks on these. To him a palace, a statue, or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air, much like a gay equipage, and seem to say like that, 'Who are you, Sir?' Yet they all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties that they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise. That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane, owes its popularity to the fact, that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason, and finds himself a true prince.

Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic. In history, our imagination plays us false. Kingdom and lordship, power and estate, are a gaudier vocabulary than private John and Edward in a small house and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both; the sum total of both is the same. Why all this deference to Alfred, and Scanderbeg, and Gustavus? Suppose they were virtuous; did they wear out virtue? As great a stake depends on your private act to-day, as followed their public and renowned steps. When private men shall act with original views, the lustre will be transferred from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen.

The world has been instructed by its kings, who have so magnetized the eyes of nations. It has been taught by this colossal symbol the mutual reverence that is due from man to man. The joyful loyalty with which men have everywhere suffered the king, the noble, or the great proprietor to walk among them by a law of his own, make his own scale of men and things, and reverse theirs, pay for benefits not with money but with honor, and represent the law in his person, was the hieroglyphic by which they obscurely signified their consciousness of their own right and comeliness, the right of every man.

The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-trust.

Who is the Trustee? What is the aboriginal Self, on which a universal reliance may be grounded? What is the nature and power of that science-baffling star, without parallax, without calculable elements, which shoots a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least mark of independence appear? The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. We denote this primary wisdom as Intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions. In that deep force, the last fact behind which analysis cannot go, all things find their common origin. For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them, and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have shared their cause. Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom, and which cannot be denied without impiety and atheism. We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm. Every man discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind, and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due. He may err in the expression of them, but he knows that these things are so, like day and night, not to be disputed. My wilful actions and acquisitions are but roving; — the idlest reverie, the faintest native emotion, command my curiosity and respect. Thoughtless people contradict as readily the statement of perceptions as of opinions, or rather much more readily; for, they do not distinguish between perception and notion. They fancy that I choose to see this or that thing. But perception is not whimsical, but fatal. If I see a trait, my children will see it after me, and in course of time, all mankind, — although it may chance that no one has seen it before me. For my perception of it is as much a fact as the sun.

The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps. It must be that when God speaketh he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; should fill the world with his voice; should scatter forth light, nature, time, souls, from the centre of the present thought; and new date and new create the whole. Whenever a mind is simple, and receives a divine wisdom, old things pass away, — means, teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now, and absorbs past and future into the present hour. All things are made sacred by relation to it, — one as much as another. All things are dissolved to their centre by their cause, and, in the universal miracle, petty and particular miracles disappear. If, therefore, a man claims to know and speak of God, and carries you backward to the phraseology of some old mouldered nation in another country, in another world, believe him not. Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fulness and completion? Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul. Time and space are but physiological colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light; where it is, is day; where it was, is night; and history is an impertinence and an injury, if it be anything more than a cheerful apologue or parable of my being and becoming.

Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; 'I think,' 'I am,' that he dares not say, but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.

This should be plain enough. Yet see what strong intellects dare not yet hear God himself, unless he speak the phraseology of I know not what David, or Jeremiah, or Paul. We shall not always set so great a price on a few texts, on a few lives. We are like children who repeat by rote the sentences of grandames and tutors, and, as they grow older, of the men of talents and character they chance to see, — painfully recollecting the exact words they spoke; afterwards, when they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings, they understand them, and are willing to let the words go; for, at any time, they can use words as good when occasion comes. If we live truly, we shall see truly. It is as easy for the strong man to be strong, as it is for the weak to be weak. When we have new perception, we shall gladly disburden the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn.

And now at last the highest truth on this subject remains unsaid; probably cannot be said; for all that we say is the far-off remembering of the intuition. That thought, by what I can now nearest approach to say it, is this. When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; not see the face of man; and you shall not hear any name;—— the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new. It shall exclude example and experience. You take the way from man, not to man. All persons that ever existed are its forgotten ministers. Fear and hope are alike beneath it. There is somewhat low even in hope. In the hour of vision, there is nothing that can be called gratitude, nor properly joy. The soul raised over passion beholds identity and eternal causation, perceives the self-existence of Truth and Right, and calms itself with knowing that all things go well. Vast spaces of nature, the Atlantic Ocean, the South Sea, — long intervals of time, years, centuries, — are of no account. This which I think and feel underlay every former state of life and circumstances, as it does underlie my present, and what is called life, and what is called death.

Life only avails, not the having lived.

Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim. This one fact the world hates is that the soul becomes ; for that forever degrades the past, turns all riches to poverty, all reputation to a shame, confounds the saint with the rogue, shoves Jesus and Judas equally aside. Why, then, do we prate of self-reliance? Inasmuch as the soul is present, there will be power, not confidence but an agent. To talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking. Speak rather of that which relies, because it works and is. Who has more obedience than I masters me, though he should not raise his finger. Round him I must revolve by the gravitation of spirits. We fancy it rhetoric, when we speak of eminent virtue. We do not yet see that virtue is Height, and that a man or a company of men, plastic and permeable to principles, by the law of nature must overpower and ride all cities, nations, kings, rich men, poets, who are not.

This is the ultimate fact which we so quickly reach on this, as on every topic, the resolution of all into the ever-blessed ONE. Self-existence is the attribute of the Supreme Cause, and it constitutes the measure of good by the degree in which it enters into all lower forms. All things real are so by so much virtue as they contain. Commerce, husbandry, hunting, whaling, war, eloquence , personal weight, are somewhat, and engage my respect as examples of its presence and impure action. I see the same law working in nature for conservation and growth. Power is in nature the essential measure of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul.

Thus all concentrates: let us not rove; let us sit at home with the cause. Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions, by a simple declaration of the divine fact. Bid the invaders take the shoes from off their feet, for God is here within. Let our simplicity judge them, and our docility to our own law demonstrate the poverty of nature and fortune beside our native riches.

But now we are a mob. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, to put itself in communication with the internal ocean, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men. We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. How far off, how cool, how chaste the persons look, begirt each one with a precinct or sanctuary! So let us always sit. Why should we assume the faults of our friend, or wife, or father, or child, because they sit around our hearth, or are said to have the same blood? All men have my blood, and I have all men's. Not for that will I adopt their petulance or folly, even to the extent of being ashamed of it. But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door, and say, — 'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me, I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. "What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love."

If we cannot at once rise to the sanctities of obedience and faith, let us at least resist our temptations; let us enter into the state of war, and wake Thor and Woden, courage and constancy, in our Saxon breasts. This is to be done in our smooth times by speaking the truth. Check this lying hospitality and lying affection. Live no longer to the expectation of these deceived and deceiving people with whom we converse. Say to them, O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth's. Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law. I will have no covenants but proximities. To nourish my parents, to support my family I shall endeavour, to be the chaste husband of one wife, — but these relations I must fill after a new and unprecedented way. I appeal from your customs that I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions if you are not. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men's, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. Does this sound harsh today? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and, if we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. — But so you may give these friends pain. Yes, but I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their sensibility. Besides, all persons have their moments of reason, when they look out into the region of absolute truth; then will they justify me, and do the same thing.

The populace think that your rejection of popular standards is a rejection of all standard, and mere antinomianism; and the bold sensualist will use the name of philosophy to gild his crimes. But the law of consciousness abides. There are two confessionals, in one or the other of which we must be shriven. You may fulfil your round of duties by clearing yourself in the direct , or in the reflex way. Consider whether you have satisfied your relations to father, mother, cousin, neighbour, town, cat, and dog; whether any of these can upbraid you. But I may also neglect this reflex standard, and absolve me to myself. I have my own stern claims and perfect circle. It denies the name of duty to many offices that are called duties. But if I can discharge its debts, it enables me to dispense with the popular code. If anyone imagines that this law is lax, let him keep its commandment one day.

And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction society , he will see the need of these ethics. The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are become timorous, desponding whimperers. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and do lean and beg day and night continually. Our housekeeping is mendicant, our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate , where strength is born.

If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart.

Men say he is ruined if the young merchant fails . If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it , farms it , peddles , keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession,' for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances. Let a Stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves; that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear; that a man is the word made flesh, born to shed healing to the nations, that he should be ashamed of our compassion, and that the moment he acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, idolatries, and customs out of the window, we pity him no more, but thank and revere him, — and that teacher shall restore the life of man to splendor, and make his name dear to all history.

It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; education; and in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views.

1. In what prayers do men allow themselves! That which they call a holy office is not so much as brave and manly. Prayer looks abroad and asks for some foreign addition to come through some foreign virtue, and loses itself in endless mazes of natural and supernatural, and mediatorial and miraculous. It is prayer that craves a particular commodity, — anything less than all good, — is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends. Caratach, in Fletcher's Bonduca, when admonished to inquire the mind of the god Audate, replies, —

"His hidden meaning lies in our endeavours; Our valors are our best gods."

Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will. Regret calamities, if you can thereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work, and already the evil begins to be repaired. Our sympathy is just as base. We come to them who weep foolishly, and sit down and cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and health in rough electric shocks, putting them once more in communication with their own reason. The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him, because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods love him because men hated him. "To the persevering mortal," said Zoroaster, "the blessed Immortals are swift."

As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect . They say with those foolish Israelites, 'Let not God speak to us, lest we die. Speak thou, speak any man with us, and we will obey.' Everywhere I am hindered of meeting God in my brother, because he has shut his own temple doors, and recites fables merely of his brother's, or his brother's brother's God. Every new mind is a new classification. If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Fourier, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system. In proportion to the depth of the thought, and so to the number of the objects it touches and brings within reach of the pupil, is his complacency. But chiefly is this apparent in creeds and churches, which are also classifications of some powerful mind acting on the elemental thought of duty, and man's relation to the Highest. Such as Calvinism, Quakerism, Swedenborgism. The pupil takes the same delight in subordinating everything to the new terminology, as a girl who has just learned botany in seeing a new earth and new seasons thereby. It will happen for a time, that the pupil will find his intellectual power has grown by the study of his master's mind. But in all unbalanced minds, the classification is idolized, passes for the end, and not for a speedily exhaustible means, so that the walls of the system blend to their eye in the remote horizon with the walls of the universe; the luminaries of heaven seem to them hung on the arch their master built. They cannot imagine how you aliens have any right to see, — how you can see; 'It must be somehow that you stole the light from us.' They do not yet perceive, that light, unsystematic, indomitable, will break into any cabin, even into theirs. Let them chirp awhile and call it their own. If they are honest and do well, presently their neat new pinfold will be too strait and low, will crack, will lean, will rot and vanish, and the immortal light, all young and joyful, million-orbed, million-colored, will beam over the universe as on the first morning.

2. It is for want of self-culture that the superstition of Travelling, whose idols are Italy, England, Egypt, retains its fascination for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination did so by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. In manly hours, we feel that duty is our place. The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance, that he goes the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign, and not like an interloper or a valet.

I have no churlish objection to the circumnavigation of the globe, for the purposes of art, of study, and benevolence, so that the man is first domesticated, or does not go abroad with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows. He who travels to be amused, or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind have become old and dilapidated as they. He carries ruins to ruins.

Travelling is a fool's paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. The Vatican, and the palaces I seek. But I am not intoxicated though I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions. My giant goes with me wherever I go.

3. But the rage of travelling is a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and our system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate, and what is imitation but the travelling of the mind? Our houses are built with foreign taste; Shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments, but our opinions, our tastes, our faculties, lean, and follow the Past and the Distant. The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought his model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought, and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or the pen of Moses, or Dante, but different from all these. Not possibly will the soul all rich, all eloquent, with thousand-cloven tongue, deign to repeat itself; but if you can hear what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply to them in the same pitch of voice; for the ear and the tongue are two organs of one nature. Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart, and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again.

4. As our Religion, our Education, our Art look abroad, so does our spirit of society. All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other and undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous,  civilized, christianized, rich and it is scientific, but this change is not amelioration. For everything that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe, and in a day or two, the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe, the equinox he knows as little, and the whole bright calendar of the year are without a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue. For every Stoic was a Stoic, but in Christendom, where is the Christian?

There is no more deviation in the moral standard than in the standard of height or bulk. No greater men are now than ever were. A singular equality may be observed between the great men of the first and of the last ages; nor can all the science, art, religion, and philosophy of the nineteenth century avail to educate greater men than Plutarch's heroes, three or four and twenty centuries ago. Not in time is the race progressive. Phocion, Socrates, Anaxagoras, Diogenes, are great men, but they leave no class. He who is really of their class will not be called by their name, but will be his own man, and, in his turn, the founder of a sect. The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men. The harm of the improved machinery may compensate its good. Hudson and Behring accomplished so much in their fishing boats, as to astonish Parry and Franklin, whose equipment exhausted the resources of science and art. Galileo, with an opera-glass, discovered a more splendid series of celestial phenomena than anyone since. Columbus found the New World in an undecked boat. It is curious to see the periodical disuse and perishing of means and machinery, which were introduced with loud laudation a few years or centuries before. The great genius returns to essential man. We reckoned the improvements of the art of war among the triumphs of science, and yet Napoleon conquered Europe by the bivouac, which consisted of falling back on naked valor and disencumbering it of all aids. The Emperor held it impossible to make a perfect army, says Las Casas, "without abolishing our arms, magazines, commissaries, and carriages, until, in imitation of the Roman custom, the soldier should receive his supply of corn, grind it in his hand-mill, and bake his bread himself."

Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not. The same particle does not rise from the valley to the ridge. Its unity is only phenomenal. The persons who make up a nation today, next year die, and their experience with them.

And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long, that they have come to esteem the religious, learned, and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has, if he see that it is accidental, — came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him, and merely lies there, because no revolution or no robber takes it away. But that which a man is does always by necessity acquire, and what the man acquires is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or mobs, or revolutions, or fire, or storm, or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever the man breathes. "Thy lot or portion of life," said the Caliph Ali, "is seeking after thee; therefore, be at rest from seeking after it." Our dependence on these foreign goods leads us to our slavish respect for numbers. The political parties meet in numerous conventions; the greater the concourse, and with each new uproar of announcement, The delegation from Essex! The Democrats from New Hampshire! The Whigs of Maine! the young patriot feels himself stronger than before by a new thousand of eyes and arms. In like manner the reformers summon conventions, and vote and resolve in multitude. Not so, O friends! will the God deign to enter and inhabit you, but by a method precisely the reverse. It is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail. He is weaker by every recruit to his banner. Is not a man better than a town? Ask nothing of men, and in the endless mutation, thou only firm column must presently appear the upholder of all that surrounds thee. He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

So use all that is called Fortune. Most men gamble with her, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God. In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance, and shalt sit hereafter out of fear from her rotations. A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

Which quotation from "Self-reliance" best summarizes Emerson’s view on belief in oneself?

One of the most famous quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" that summarizes his view on belief in oneself is:

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."

What does Emerson argue should be the basis of human actions in the second paragraph of “self-reliance”?

In the second paragraph of "Self-Reliance," Emerson argues that individual conscience, or a person's inner voice, should be the basis of human actions. He writes, "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." He believes that society tends to impose conformity and discourage people from following their own inner truth and intuition. Emerson encourages individuals to trust themselves and to act according to their own beliefs, instead of being influenced by the opinions of others. He argues that this is the way to live a truly authentic and fulfilling life.

Which statement best describes Emerson’s opinion of communities, according to the first paragraph of society and solitude?

According to the first paragraph of Ralph Waldo Emerson's " Society and Solitude, " Emerson has a mixed opinion of communities. He recognizes the importance of social interaction and the benefits of being part of a community but also recognizes the limitations that come with it.

He writes, "Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members." He argues that society can be limiting and restrictive, and can cause individuals to conform to norms and values that may not align with their own beliefs and desires. He believes that it is important for individuals to strike a balance between the benefits of social interaction and the need for solitude and self-discovery.

Which best describes Emerson’s central message to his contemporaries in "self-reliance"?

Ralph Waldo Emerson's central message to his contemporaries in "Self-Reliance" is to encourage individuals to trust in their own beliefs and instincts, and to break free from societal norms and expectations. He argues that individuals should have the courage to think for themselves and to live according to their own individual truth, rather than being influenced by the opinions of others. Through this message, he aims to empower people to live authentic and fulfilling lives, rather than living in conformity and compromise.

Yet, it is critical that we first possess the ability to conceive our own thoughts. Prior to venturing into the world, we must be intimately acquainted with our own selves and our individual minds. This sentiment echoes the concise maxim inscribed at the ancient Greek site of the Delphic Oracle: 'Know Thyself.'

In essence, Emerson's central message in "Self-Reliance" is to promote self-reliance and individualism as the key to a meaningful and purposeful life.

Understanding Emerson: "The American scholar" and his struggle for self-reliance.

Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09982-0

Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Other works from ralph waldo emerson for book clubs, the over-soul.

There is a difference between one and another hour of life, in their authority and subsequent effect. Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.

The American Scholar

An Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837

Essays First Series

Essays: First Series First published in 1841 as Essays. After Essays: Second Series was published in 1844, Emerson corrected this volume and republished it in 1847 as Essays: First Series.

Emerson's Essays

Research the collective works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Read More Essay

Self-Reliance

Emerson's most famous work that can truly change your life. Check it out

Early Emerson Poems

America's best known and best-loved poems. More Poems

Passing Thru Travel

The Ultimate Guide to Exploring 10 Historic Churches 2024 – Sacred Spaces and Their Stories

Posted: February 21, 2024 | Last updated: February 21, 2024

Exploring historic churches is not just a journey through religious architecture; it’s an exploration of history, art, and spirituality. These sacred spaces, ranging from grand cathedrals to intimate chapels, offer a glimpse into their times’ cultural and spiritual life. This guide will take you through 10 of the world’s most historic and awe-inspiring churches, revealing their stories and the secrets they hold.

1. Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

Experience the grandeur of Gothic architecture at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Situated on the Île de la Cité, this historical marvel boasts flying buttresses, gargoyles, and remarkable rose windows. Inside, the cathedral is just as impressive, with its high vaulted ceilings and beautiful stained glass. Don’t miss the Treasury for its sacred relics and the opportunity to climb the towers, where you can enjoy a stunning view of the Seine and the Parisian skyline. Visit in the evening to catch the magnificent light show or attend an organ concert for an immersive experience.

Insider’s Tip: Attend an evening concert to experience the cathedral’s acoustics.

When To Travel: Spring or fall for fewer crowds.

How To Get There: Easily accessible via the Cité or Saint-Michel Notre-Dame metro stations.

2. St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Italy

Visit St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City to witness the heart of the Catholic world and a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. Inside, you’ll find stunning works of art, including Michelangelo’s Pietà and Bernini’s Baldachin. The climb to the top of the dome offers a breathtaking panoramic view of Rome and the Vatican gardens. The scale of the basilica is awe-inspiring, from its imposing facade to the vastness of its interior. Remember to dress modestly as a sign of respect when visiting this sacred site.

Insider’s Tip: Dress conservatively as a sign of respect for this sacred site.

When To Travel: Visit in the off-season to avoid long lines.

How To Get There: Reachable by metro (Ottaviano-S. Pietro-Musei Vaticani station).

3. Sagrada Família, Barcelona, Spain

The Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí’s renowned unfinished masterpiece, uniquely explores architectural innovation in Barcelona. The church’s facades, each depicting different biblical themes, are a testament to Gaudí’s creative genius. The stained-glass windows create a symphony of light that illuminates the intricate columns and ceilings. Ascend the towers for a closer look at the architectural details and a panoramic view of the city. The ongoing construction, part of the church’s charm, speaks to the evolving nature of this iconic structure.

Insider’s Tip: Book tickets online in advance to skip the long queues.

When To Travel: Early spring or late fall for a more peaceful visit.

How To Get There: Accessible via the Sagrada Família metro station.

4. Westminster Abbey, London, England

Explore the rich history of England at Westminster Abbey in London. This Gothic church is a place of worship and a significant site for royal ceremonies and burials. The abbey houses tombs of monarchs, poets, and scientists, each with their own story. The Poets’ Corner is particularly noteworthy, resting place of figures like Shakespeare and Dickens. Try to attend Evensong for a traditional Anglican service accompanied by the renowned choir, a truly serene experience.

Insider’s Tip: Attend the Evensong service for a spiritual and musical experience.

When To Travel: Weekday mornings are typically less crowded.

How To Get There: A short walk from Westminster or St. James’s Park tube stations.

5. St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia

St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, with its colorful, onion-domed towers, symbolizes Russia’s architectural creativity. Each dome of this iconic cathedral represents a different chapel, with vibrant frescoes and ornate altars. The interior is a maze of narrow corridors and small chapels, each uniquely decorated. Visit at night when the cathedral is illuminated to fully appreciate its beauty and the intricate details of its design.

Insider’s Tip: Visit at night when the cathedral is beautifully illuminated.

When To Travel: Late spring or early summer for pleasant weather.

How To Get There: Located in Red Square, it’s easily accessible on foot from many parts of central Moscow.

6. Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France

Immerse yourself in the spiritual ambiance of Chartres Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its stunning architecture and stained-glass windows. The cathedral’s labyrinth on the floor is a highlight, offering a meditative journey for visitors. The blue Chartres stained glass, especially in the famous Rose Window, is renowned for its vibrancy and craftsmanship. The cathedral also hosts light shows illuminating its exterior, showcasing its spectacular architectural details.

Insider’s Tip: Try to visit on a sunny day when the stained glass truly comes to life.

When To Travel: Spring or early fall to avoid the tourist peak season.

How To Get There: About an hour by train from Paris.

7. Duomo di Milano, Milan, Italy

Discover the Duomo di Milano, an iconic symbol of Milan and one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world. Its elaborate façade, adorned with numerous statues and spires, is an architectural marvel. The interior is equally impressive, with high ceilings and stained-glass windows depicting various biblical stories. Don’t miss the chance to visit the rooftop terraces, where you can walk among the spires and enjoy a unique view of Milan’s cityscape.

Insider’s Tip: The rooftop is especially impressive at sunset.

When To Travel: Visit in the shoulder season to avoid crowds.

How To Get There: It’s located in the city center and accessible by metro (Duomo station).

8. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

Explore the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a magnificent structure that has stood as a church, a mosque, and now a museum. This architectural marvel boasts a massive dome, stunning mosaics, and Islamic calligraphy. Its upper galleries provide a closer view of the intricate mosaics and offer a unique perspective of the interior and the sprawling city outside. The Hagia Sophia is a testament to Istanbul’s diverse religious history and architectural innovation.

Insider’s Tip: Look for the Viking graffiti on the upper gallery marble balustrades.

When To Travel: Early morning or late afternoon to avoid crowds.

How To Get There: Situated in Sultanahmet, it’s easily accessible by tram.

9. Florence Cathedral (Duomo), Florence, Italy

Visit the Florence Cathedral, an architectural masterpiece in the heart of the city. Known for its striking red dome designed by Brunelleschi, the cathedral stands as a testament to the ingenuity of the Renaissance. The exterior, with its intricate marble panels, is as impressive as the vast interior. Climbing the dome is a highlight, offering stunning views of Florence and a close-up look at the frescoes inside the dome.

Insider’s Tip: Visit the adjacent Baptistery to see the famous bronze doors.

When To Travel: Early spring or late fall to avoid the heavy tourist crowds.

How To Get There: Located in the heart of Florence, it’s best explored on foot.

10. Cologne Cathedral, Cologne, Germany

Experience the awe-inspiring grandeur of Cologne Cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The cathedral’s twin spires dominate Cologne’s skyline, and its interior houses an impressive collection of art, including the Shrine of the Three Kings. The stained-glass windows, particularly the modern ones in the south transept, are notable for their intricate designs and vivid colors. Climbing the south tower rewards you with a panoramic view of Cologne and the Rhine River.

Insider’s Tip: Climb the south tower for a breathtaking view of the city and the Rhine.

When To Travel: Visit during the week to avoid weekend crowds.

How To Get There: Conveniently located near the main train station in Cologne.

The Bottom Line

Your journey through these historic churches is more than just a tour of religious sites; it explores history, culture, and art. Each church offers a unique window into the past, from the Gothic spires of Cologne to the Byzantine domes of Hagia Sophia. As you wander these sacred spaces, take a moment to appreciate the silence, the beauty, and the stories they hold. Every stone, window, and painting in these churches has a tale to tell, waiting for you to discover.

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The post The Ultimate Guide to Exploring 10 Historic Churches – Sacred Spaces and Their Stories republished on Passing Thru with permission from The Green Voyage .

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Korkusung.

For transparency, this content was partly developed with AI assistance and carefully curated by an experienced editor to be informative and ensure accuracy.

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The Case for Marrying an Older Man

A woman’s life is all work and little rest. an age gap relationship can help..

In the summer, in the south of France, my husband and I like to play, rather badly, the lottery. We take long, scorching walks to the village — gratuitous beauty, gratuitous heat — kicking up dust and languid debates over how we’d spend such an influx. I purchase scratch-offs, jackpot tickets, scraping the former with euro coins in restaurants too fine for that. I never cash them in, nor do I check the winning numbers. For I already won something like the lotto, with its gifts and its curses, when he married me.

He is ten years older than I am. I chose him on purpose, not by chance. As far as life decisions go, on balance, I recommend it.

When I was 20 and a junior at Harvard College, a series of great ironies began to mock me. I could study all I wanted, prove myself as exceptional as I liked, and still my fiercest advantage remained so universal it deflated my other plans. My youth. The newness of my face and body. Compellingly effortless; cruelly fleeting. I shared it with the average, idle young woman shrugging down the street. The thought, when it descended on me, jolted my perspective, the way a falling leaf can make you look up: I could diligently craft an ideal existence, over years and years of sleepless nights and industry. Or I could just marry it early.

So naturally I began to lug a heavy suitcase of books each Saturday to the Harvard Business School to work on my Nabokov paper. In one cavernous, well-appointed room sat approximately 50 of the planet’s most suitable bachelors. I had high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out. Apologies to Progress, but older men still desired those things.

I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence. Each time I reconsidered the project, it struck me as more reasonable. Why ignore our youth when it amounted to a superpower? Why assume the burdens of womanhood, its too-quick-to-vanish upper hand, but not its brief benefits at least? Perhaps it came easier to avoid the topic wholesale than to accept that women really do have a tragically short window of power, and reason enough to take advantage of that fact while they can. As for me, I liked history, Victorian novels, knew of imminent female pitfalls from all the books I’d read: vampiric boyfriends; labor, at the office and in the hospital, expected simultaneously; a decline in status as we aged, like a looming eclipse. I’d have disliked being called calculating, but I had, like all women, a calculator in my head. I thought it silly to ignore its answers when they pointed to an unfairness for which we really ought to have been preparing.

I was competitive by nature, an English-literature student with all the corresponding major ambitions and minor prospects (Great American novel; email job). A little Bovarist , frantic for new places and ideas; to travel here, to travel there, to be in the room where things happened. I resented the callow boys in my class, who lusted after a particular, socially sanctioned type on campus: thin and sexless, emotionally detached and socially connected, the opposite of me. Restless one Saturday night, I slipped on a red dress and snuck into a graduate-school event, coiling an HDMI cord around my wrist as proof of some technical duty. I danced. I drank for free, until one of the organizers asked me to leave. I called and climbed into an Uber. Then I promptly climbed out of it. For there he was, emerging from the revolving doors. Brown eyes, curved lips, immaculate jacket. I went to him, asked him for a cigarette. A date, days later. A second one, where I discovered he was a person, potentially my favorite kind: funny, clear-eyed, brilliant, on intimate terms with the universe.

I used to love men like men love women — that is, not very well, and with a hunger driven only by my own inadequacies. Not him. In those early days, I spoke fondly of my family, stocked the fridge with his favorite pasta, folded his clothes more neatly than I ever have since. I wrote his mother a thank-you note for hosting me in his native France, something befitting a daughter-in-law. It worked; I meant it. After graduation and my fellowship at Oxford, I stayed in Europe for his career and married him at 23.

Of course I just fell in love. Romances have a setting; I had only intervened to place myself well. Mainly, I spotted the precise trouble of being a woman ahead of time, tried to surf it instead of letting it drown me on principle. I had grown bored of discussions of fair and unfair, equal or unequal , and preferred instead to consider a thing called ease.

The reception of a particular age-gap relationship depends on its obviousness. The greater and more visible the difference in years and status between a man and a woman, the more it strikes others as transactional. Transactional thinking in relationships is both as American as it gets and the least kosher subject in the American romantic lexicon. When a 50-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman walk down the street, the questions form themselves inside of you; they make you feel cynical and obscene: How good of a deal is that? Which party is getting the better one? Would I take it? He is older. Income rises with age, so we assume he has money, at least relative to her; at minimum, more connections and experience. She has supple skin. Energy. Sex. Maybe she gets a Birkin. Maybe he gets a baby long after his prime. The sight of their entwined hands throws a lucid light on the calculations each of us makes, in love, to varying degrees of denial. You could get married in the most romantic place in the world, like I did, and you would still have to sign a contract.

Twenty and 30 is not like 30 and 40; some freshness to my features back then, some clumsiness in my bearing, warped our decade, in the eyes of others, to an uncrossable gulf. Perhaps this explains the anger we felt directed at us at the start of our relationship. People seemed to take us very, very personally. I recall a hellish car ride with a friend of his who began to castigate me in the backseat, in tones so low that only I could hear him. He told me, You wanted a rich boyfriend. You chased and snuck into parties . He spared me the insult of gold digger, but he drew, with other words, the outline for it. Most offended were the single older women, my husband’s classmates. They discussed me in the bathroom at parties when I was in the stall. What does he see in her? What do they talk about? They were concerned about me. They wielded their concern like a bludgeon. They paraphrased without meaning to my favorite line from Nabokov’s Lolita : “You took advantage of my disadvantage,” suspecting me of some weakness he in turn mined. It did not disturb them, so much, to consider that all relationships were trades. The trouble was the trade I’d made struck them as a bad one.

The truth is you can fall in love with someone for all sorts of reasons, tiny transactions, pluses and minuses, whose sum is your affection for each other, your loyalty, your commitment. The way someone picks up your favorite croissant. Their habit of listening hard. What they do for you on your anniversary and your reciprocal gesture, wrapped thoughtfully. The serenity they inspire; your happiness, enlivening it. When someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them.

When I think of same-age, same-stage relationships, what I tend to picture is a woman who is doing too much for too little.

I’m 27 now, and most women my age have “partners.” These days, girls become partners quite young. A partner is supposed to be a modern answer to the oppression of marriage, the terrible feeling of someone looming over you, head of a household to which you can only ever be the neck. Necks are vulnerable. The problem with a partner, however, is if you’re equal in all things, you compromise in all things. And men are too skilled at taking .

There is a boy out there who knows how to floss because my friend taught him. Now he kisses college girls with fresh breath. A boy married to my friend who doesn’t know how to pack his own suitcase. She “likes to do it for him.” A million boys who know how to touch a woman, who go to therapy because they were pushed, who learned fidelity, boundaries, decency, manners, to use a top sheet and act humanely beneath it, to call their mothers, match colors, bring flowers to a funeral and inhale, exhale in the face of rage, because some girl, some girl we know, some girl they probably don’t speak to and will never, ever credit, took the time to teach him. All while she was working, raising herself, clawing up the cliff-face of adulthood. Hauling him at her own expense.

I find a post on Reddit where five thousand men try to define “ a woman’s touch .” They describe raised flower beds, blankets, photographs of their loved ones, not hers, sprouting on the mantel overnight. Candles, coasters, side tables. Someone remembering to take lint out of the dryer. To give compliments. I wonder what these women are getting back. I imagine them like Cinderella’s mice, scurrying around, their sole proof of life their contributions to a more central character. On occasion I meet a nice couple, who grew up together. They know each other with a fraternalism tender and alien to me.  But I think of all my friends who failed at this, were failed at this, and I think, No, absolutely not, too risky . Riskier, sometimes, than an age gap.

My younger brother is in his early 20s, handsome, successful, but in many ways: an endearing disaster. By his age, I had long since wisened up. He leaves his clothes in the dryer, takes out a single shirt, steams it for three minutes. His towel on the floor, for someone else to retrieve. His lovely, same-age girlfriend is aching to fix these tendencies, among others. She is capable beyond words. Statistically, they will not end up together. He moved into his first place recently, and she, the girlfriend, supplied him with a long, detailed list of things he needed for his apartment: sheets, towels, hangers, a colander, which made me laugh. She picked out his couch. I will bet you anything she will fix his laundry habits, and if so, they will impress the next girl. If they break up, she will never see that couch again, and he will forget its story. I tell her when I visit because I like her, though I get in trouble for it: You shouldn’t do so much for him, not for someone who is not stuck with you, not for any boy, not even for my wonderful brother.

Too much work had left my husband, by 30, jaded and uninspired. He’d burned out — but I could reenchant things. I danced at restaurants when they played a song I liked. I turned grocery shopping into an adventure, pleased by what I provided. Ambitious, hungry, he needed someone smart enough to sustain his interest, but flexible enough in her habits to build them around his hours. I could. I do: read myself occupied, make myself free, materialize beside him when he calls for me. In exchange, I left a lucrative but deadening spreadsheet job to write full-time, without having to live like a writer. I learned to cook, a little, and decorate, somewhat poorly. Mostly I get to read, to walk central London and Miami and think in delicious circles, to work hard, when necessary, for free, and write stories for far less than minimum wage when I tally all the hours I take to write them.

At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self, couldn’t imagine doing it in tandem with someone, two raw lumps of clay trying to mold one another and only sullying things worse. I’d go on dates with boys my age and leave with the impression they were telling me not about themselves but some person who didn’t exist yet and on whom I was meant to bet regardless. My husband struck me instead as so finished, formed. Analyzable for compatibility. He bore the traces of other women who’d improved him, small but crucial basics like use a coaster ; listen, don’t give advice. Young egos mellow into patience and generosity.

My husband isn’t my partner. He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did. Adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations. But his logistics ran so smoothly that he simply tacked mine on. I moved into his flat, onto his level, drag and drop, cleaner thrice a week, bills automatic. By opting out of partnership in my 20s, I granted myself a kind of compartmentalized, liberating selfishness none of my friends have managed. I am the work in progress, the party we worry about, a surprising dominance. When I searched for my first job, at 21, we combined our efforts, for my sake. He had wisdom to impart, contacts with whom he arranged coffees; we spent an afternoon, laughing, drawing up earnest lists of my pros and cons (highly sociable; sloppy math). Meanwhile, I took calls from a dear friend who had a boyfriend her age. Both savagely ambitious, hyperclose and entwined in each other’s projects. If each was a start-up , the other was the first hire, an intense dedication I found riveting. Yet every time she called me, I hung up with the distinct feeling that too much was happening at the same time: both learning to please a boss; to forge more adult relationships with their families; to pay bills and taxes and hang prints on the wall. Neither had any advice to give and certainly no stability. I pictured a three-legged race, two people tied together and hobbling toward every milestone.

I don’t fool myself. My marriage has its cons. There are only so many times one can say “thank you” — for splendid scenes, fine dinners — before the phrase starts to grate. I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that shapes the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him. He doesn’t have to hold it over my head. It just floats there, complicating usual shorthands to explain dissatisfaction like, You aren’t being supportive lately . It’s a Frenchism to say, “Take a decision,” and from time to time I joke: from whom? Occasionally I find myself in some fabulous country at some fabulous party and I think what a long way I have traveled, like a lucky cloud, and it is frightening to think of oneself as vapor.

Mostly I worry that if he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive, but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials, the way Renaissance painters hid in their paintings their faces among a crowd. I wonder if when they looked at their paintings, they saw their own faces first. But this is the wrong question, if our aim is happiness. Like the other question on which I’m expected to dwell: Who is in charge, the man who drives or the woman who put him there so she could enjoy herself? I sit in the car, in the painting it would have taken me a corporate job and 20 years to paint alone, and my concern over who has the upper hand becomes as distant as the horizon, the one he and I made so wide for me.

To be a woman is to race against the clock, in several ways, until there is nothing left to be but run ragged.

We try to put it off, but it will hit us at some point: that we live in a world in which our power has a different shape from that of men, a different distribution of advantage, ours a funnel and theirs an expanding cone. A woman at 20 rarely has to earn her welcome; a boy at 20 will be turned away at the door. A woman at 30 may find a younger woman has taken her seat; a man at 30 will have invited her. I think back to the women in the bathroom, my husband’s classmates. What was my relationship if not an inconvertible sign of this unfairness? What was I doing, in marrying older, if not endorsing it? I had taken advantage of their disadvantage. I had preempted my own. After all, principled women are meant to defy unfairness, to show some integrity or denial, not plan around it, like I had. These were driven women, successful, beautiful, capable. I merely possessed the one thing they had already lost. In getting ahead of the problem, had I pushed them down? If I hadn’t, would it really have made any difference?

When we decided we wanted to be equal to men, we got on men’s time. We worked when they worked, retired when they retired, had to squeeze pregnancy, children, menopause somewhere impossibly in the margins. I have a friend, in her late 20s, who wears a mood ring; these days it is often red, flickering in the air like a siren when she explains her predicament to me. She has raised her fair share of same-age boyfriends. She has put her head down, worked laboriously alongside them, too. At last she is beginning to reap the dividends, earning the income to finally enjoy herself. But it is now, exactly at this precipice of freedom and pleasure, that a time problem comes closing in. If she would like to have children before 35, she must begin her next profession, motherhood, rather soon, compromising inevitably her original one. The same-age partner, equally unsettled in his career, will take only the minimum time off, she guesses, or else pay some cost which will come back to bite her. Everything unfailingly does. If she freezes her eggs to buy time, the decision and its logistics will burden her singly — and perhaps it will not work. Overlay the years a woman is supposed to establish herself in her career and her fertility window and it’s a perfect, miserable circle. By midlife women report feeling invisible, undervalued; it is a telling cliché, that after all this, some husbands leave for a younger girl. So when is her time, exactly? For leisure, ease, liberty? There is no brand of feminism which achieved female rest. If women’s problem in the ’50s was a paralyzing malaise, now it is that they are too active, too capable, never permitted a vacation they didn’t plan. It’s not that our efforts to have it all were fated for failure. They simply weren’t imaginative enough.

For me, my relationship, with its age gap, has alleviated this rush , permitted me to massage the clock, shift its hands to my benefit. Very soon, we will decide to have children, and I don’t panic over last gasps of fun, because I took so many big breaths of it early: on the holidays of someone who had worked a decade longer than I had, in beautiful places when I was young and beautiful, a symmetry I recommend. If such a thing as maternal energy exists, mine was never depleted. I spent the last nearly seven years supported more than I support and I am still not as old as my husband was when he met me. When I have a child, I will expect more help from him than I would if he were younger, for what does professional tenure earn you if not the right to set more limits on work demands — or, if not, to secure some child care, at the very least? When I return to work after maternal upheaval, he will aid me, as he’s always had, with his ability to put himself aside, as younger men are rarely able.

Above all, the great gift of my marriage is flexibility. A chance to live my life before I become responsible for someone else’s — a lover’s, or a child’s. A chance to write. A chance at a destiny that doesn’t adhere rigidly to the routines and timelines of men, but lends itself instead to roomy accommodation, to the very fluidity Betty Friedan dreamed of in 1963 in The Feminine Mystique , but we’ve largely forgotten: some career or style of life that “permits year-to-year variation — a full-time paid job in one community, part-time in another, exercise of the professional skill in serious volunteer work or a period of study during pregnancy or early motherhood when a full-time job is not feasible.” Some things are just not feasible in our current structures. Somewhere along the way we stopped admitting that, and all we did was make women feel like personal failures. I dream of new structures, a world in which women have entry-level jobs in their 30s; alternate avenues for promotion; corporate ladders with balconies on which they can stand still, have a smoke, take a break, make a baby, enjoy themselves, before they keep climbing. Perhaps men long for this in their own way. Actually I am sure of that.

Once, when we first fell in love, I put my head in his lap on a long car ride; I remember his hands on my face, the sun, the twisting turns of a mountain road, surprising and not surprising us like our romance, and his voice, telling me that it was his biggest regret that I was so young, he feared he would lose me. Last week, we looked back at old photos and agreed we’d given each other our respective best years. Sometimes real equality is not so obvious, sometimes it takes turns, sometimes it takes almost a decade to reveal itself.

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That Viral Essay Wasn’t About Age Gaps. It Was About Marrying Rich.

But both tactics are flawed if you want to have any hope of becoming yourself..

Women are wisest, a viral essay in New York magazine’s the Cut argues , to maximize their most valuable cultural assets— youth and beauty—and marry older men when they’re still very young. Doing so, 27-year-old writer Grazie Sophia Christie writes, opens up a life of ease, and gets women off of a male-defined timeline that has our professional and reproductive lives crashing irreconcilably into each other. Sure, she says, there are concessions, like one’s freedom and entire independent identity. But those are small gives in comparison to a life in which a person has no adult responsibilities, including the responsibility to become oneself.

This is all framed as rational, perhaps even feminist advice, a way for women to quit playing by men’s rules and to reject exploitative capitalist demands—a choice the writer argues is the most obviously intelligent one. That other Harvard undergraduates did not busy themselves trying to attract wealthy or soon-to-be-wealthy men seems to flummox her (taking her “high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out” to the Harvard Business School library, “I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence”). But it’s nothing more than a recycling of some of the oldest advice around: For women to mold themselves around more-powerful men, to never grow into independent adults, and to find happiness in a state of perpetual pre-adolescence, submission, and dependence. These are odd choices for an aspiring writer (one wonders what, exactly, a girl who never wants to grow up and has no idea who she is beyond what a man has made her into could possibly have to write about). And it’s bad advice for most human beings, at least if what most human beings seek are meaningful and happy lives.

But this is not an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying older men. It is an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying rich men. Most of the purported upsides—a paid-for apartment, paid-for vacations, lives split between Miami and London—are less about her husband’s age than his wealth. Every 20-year-old in the country could decide to marry a thirtysomething and she wouldn’t suddenly be gifted an eternal vacation.

Which is part of what makes the framing of this as an age-gap essay both strange and revealing. The benefits the writer derives from her relationship come from her partner’s money. But the things she gives up are the result of both their profound financial inequality and her relative youth. Compared to her and her peers, she writes, her husband “struck me instead as so finished, formed.” By contrast, “At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self.” The idea of having to take responsibility for her own life was profoundly unappealing, as “adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations.” Tying herself to an older man gave her an out, a way to skip the work of becoming an adult by allowing a father-husband to mold her to his desires. “My husband isn’t my partner,” she writes. “He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did.”

These, by the way, are the things she says are benefits of marrying older.

The downsides are many, including a basic inability to express a full range of human emotion (“I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that constrains the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him”) and an understanding that she owes back, in some other form, what he materially provides (the most revealing line in the essay may be when she claims that “when someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them”). It is clear that part of what she has paid in exchange for a paid-for life is a total lack of any sense of self, and a tacit agreement not to pursue one. “If he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive,” she writes, “but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials.”

Reading Christie’s essay, I thought of another one: Joan Didion’s on self-respect , in which Didion argues that “character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.” If we lack self-respect, “we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out—since our self-image is untenable—their false notions of us.” Self-respect may not make life effortless and easy. But it means that whenever “we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously un- comfortable bed, the one we make ourselves,” at least we can fall asleep.

It can feel catty to publicly criticize another woman’s romantic choices, and doing so inevitably opens one up to accusations of jealousy or pettiness. But the stories we tell about marriage, love, partnership, and gender matter, especially when they’re told in major culture-shaping magazines. And it’s equally as condescending to say that women’s choices are off-limits for critique, especially when those choices are shared as universal advice, and especially when they neatly dovetail with resurgent conservative efforts to make women’s lives smaller and less independent. “Marry rich” is, as labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards put it in Bloomberg, essentially the Republican plan for mothers. The model of marriage as a hierarchy with a breadwinning man on top and a younger, dependent, submissive woman meeting his needs and those of their children is not exactly a fresh or groundbreaking ideal. It’s a model that kept women trapped and miserable for centuries.

It’s also one that profoundly stunted women’s intellectual and personal growth. In her essay for the Cut, Christie seems to believe that a life of ease will abet a life freed up for creative endeavors, and happiness. But there’s little evidence that having material abundance and little adversity actually makes people happy, let alone more creatively generativ e . Having one’s basic material needs met does seem to be a prerequisite for happiness. But a meaningful life requires some sense of self, an ability to look outward rather than inward, and the intellectual and experiential layers that come with facing hardship and surmounting it.

A good and happy life is not a life in which all is easy. A good and happy life (and here I am borrowing from centuries of philosophers and scholars) is one characterized by the pursuit of meaning and knowledge, by deep connections with and service to other people (and not just to your husband and children), and by the kind of rich self-knowledge and satisfaction that comes from owning one’s choices, taking responsibility for one’s life, and doing the difficult and endless work of growing into a fully-formed person—and then evolving again. Handing everything about one’s life over to an authority figure, from the big decisions to the minute details, may seem like a path to ease for those who cannot stomach the obligations and opportunities of their own freedom. It’s really an intellectual and emotional dead end.

And what kind of man seeks out a marriage like this, in which his only job is to provide, but very much is owed? What kind of man desires, as the writer cast herself, a raw lump of clay to be molded to simply fill in whatever cracks in his life needed filling? And if the transaction is money and guidance in exchange for youth, beauty, and pliability, what happens when the young, beautiful, and pliable party inevitably ages and perhaps feels her backbone begin to harden? What happens if she has children?

The thing about using youth and beauty as a currency is that those assets depreciate pretty rapidly. There is a nearly endless supply of young and beautiful women, with more added each year. There are smaller numbers of wealthy older men, and the pool winnows down even further if one presumes, as Christie does, that many of these men want to date and marry compliant twentysomethings. If youth and beauty are what you’re exchanging for a man’s resources, you’d better make sure there’s something else there—like the basic ability to provide for yourself, or at the very least a sense of self—to back that exchange up.

It is hard to be an adult woman; it’s hard to be an adult, period. And many women in our era of unfinished feminism no doubt find plenty to envy about a life in which they don’t have to work tirelessly to barely make ends meet, don’t have to manage the needs of both children and man-children, could simply be taken care of for once. This may also explain some of the social media fascination with Trad Wives and stay-at-home girlfriends (some of that fascination is also, I suspect, simply a sexual submission fetish , but that’s another column). Fantasies of leisure reflect a real need for it, and American women would be far better off—happier, freer—if time and resources were not so often so constrained, and doled out so inequitably.

But the way out is not actually found in submission, and certainly not in electing to be carried by a man who could choose to drop you at any time. That’s not a life of ease. It’s a life of perpetual insecurity, knowing your spouse believes your value is decreasing by the day while his—an actual dollar figure—rises. A life in which one simply allows another adult to do all the deciding for them is a stunted life, one of profound smallness—even if the vacations are nice.

A Solar Eclipse Means Big Science

By Katrina Miller April 1, 2024

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On April 8, cameras all over North America will make a “megamovie” of the sun’s corona, like this one from the 2017 eclipse. The time lapse will help scientists track the behavior of jets and plumes on the sun’s surface.

There’s more science happening along the path of totality →

An app named SunSketcher will help the public take pictures of the eclipse with their phones.

Scientists will use these images to study deviations in the shape of the solar surface , which will help them understand the sun’s churning behavior below.

The sun right now is approaching peak activity. More than 40 telescope stations along the eclipse’s path will record totality.

By comparing these videos to what was captured in 2017 — when the sun was at a lull — researchers can learn how the sun’s magnetism drives the solar wind, or particles that stream through the solar system.

Students will launch giant balloons equipped with cameras and sensors along the eclipse’s path.

Their measurements may improve weather forecasting , and also produce a bird’s eye view of the moon’s shadow moving across the Earth.

Ham radio operators will send signals to each other across the path of totality to study how the density of electrons in Earth’s upper atmosphere changes .

This can help quantify how space weather produced by the sun disrupts radar communication systems.

(Animation by Dr. Joseph Huba, Syntek Technologies; HamSCI Project, Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, the University of Scranton, NSF and NASA.)

NASA is also studying Earth’s atmosphere, but far from the path of totality.

In Virginia, the agency will launch rockets during the eclipse to measure how local drops in sunlight cause ripple effects hundreds of miles away . The data will clarify how eclipses and other solar events affect satellite communications, including GPS.

Biologists in San Antonio plan to stash recording devices in beehives to study how bees orient themselves using sunlight , and how the insects respond to the sudden atmospheric changes during a total eclipse.

Two researchers in southern Illinois will analyze social media posts to understand tourism patterns in remote towns , including when visitors arrive, where they come from and what they do during their visits.

Results can help bolster infrastructure to support large events in rural areas.

Read more about the eclipse:

Our Coverage of the Total Solar Eclipse

Hearing the Eclipse:  A device called LightSound is being distributed to help the blind and visually impaired experience what they can’t see .

Maine Brac es Itself :  Businesses and planning committees are eager for visitors, but some in remote Aroostook County are not sure how they feel  about lying smack in the path of totality.

A Dark Day for Buffalo:  When the sky above Buffalo briefly goes dark  on the afternoon of April 8, the city will transcend its dreary place in the public consciousness — measured as it so often is by snowstorms — if only for about three minutes. The city can’t wait.

Under the Moon’s Shadow:  The late Jay Pasachoff, who spent a lifetime chasing eclipses , inspired generations of students to become astronomers by dragging them to the ends of the Earth for a few precarious moments of ecstasy.

A Rare Return:  It is rare for a total solar eclipse to hit the same place twice — once every 366 years on average. People in certain areas will encounter April 8’s eclipse  about seven years after they were near the middle of the path of the “Great American Eclipse.”

A Small City’s Big Plans:  Let the big cities have their eclipse mega-events. In Plattsburgh, N.Y., success looks different  for everyone stopping to look up.

 No Power Outages:  When the sky darkens during the eclipse, electricity production in some parts of the country will drop so sharply that it could theoretically leave tens of millions of homes in the dark. In practice, hardly anyone will notice  a sudden loss of energy.

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