Dear HCN,
My reaction to Rob
White’s “Sacred Places’ (HCN, 3/7/94) was a bit different from
Hannah Hinchman’s (HCN, 4/18/94). I felt White’s essay to be one of
the most insightful I’ve ever read in HCN. Judging by Hinchman’s
many fine points, I would guess that if she read “Sacred Places’
without prejudice she might realize how much she agrees with
White.
I think that White’s implied alternative
to loving our sacred places to death is to recognize that the
sacred can be found in our own backyards. If sacred places are
found everywhere, then there is less need to pilgrimage en masse to
Outside’s featured vistas.
I would further
suggest that we don’t know what to do when we arrive at Outside’s
cover shot. My first visit to Canyonlands as a college freshman,
for example, was experienced through a fog of alcohol and pot. On
my more recent visits to the Colorado Plateau, I’ve had a
considerably different attitude. I suggest that the inner process
that both White and Hinchman advocate can be facilitated by
experiencing the wilderness without time or
destination.
Get off that mountain bike, forget
the march to the confluence, leave the brew at the Rio. Slow down
long enough to really experience wilderness and self. The resulting
reverence for place can only serve to further its
conservation.
Matt
Hansen
Eden, Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Searching for the sacred.
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