Understanding 'Place'
26th November 2015
26th Nov
Understanding 'Place'
“To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime's experience. In the world of poetic experience it is depth that counts, not width. A gap in a hedge, a smooth rock surfacing a narrow lane, a view of a woody meadow, the stream at the junction of four small fields - these are as much as a man can fully experience.”
Patrick Kavanagh
Most of us have a particular place that we feel connected to. A place where we unconsciously know the layout and alignment of the land. An area that seems to call out in welcome. However, with the changes to lifestyle (driven by technology and social change) we can all too easily lose the intensity and strength of connections to place.
The Human Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan picks up on this theme by commenting that:
".. the grip of these places on us is light. Switching allegiance is common. Even our home does not command loyalty. The phenomenon I have just described is a familiar one and we know it to be a consequence of mobility, itself a consequence of economic well-being, backed by a speediness of transportation and communication that has cut down the historic onus of distance. Still, the lightness of our current attachment to place makes us wonder whether it is a serious loss, affecting our mental health and even our moral sense, which calls for strong commitment."
Yi-fu Tuan also argues that, despite the erosion of connection caused by modern life, we inevitably grow attached to our native place. This phenomena is keenly seen when we consider the exile. They feel disconnected from their new reality and always have an eye for home. They are defined even more strongly by place than most, but a place they now have no access too. Mahmoud Darwish captures this thought:
"I am from there. I am from here.
I am not there and I am not here.
I have two names, which meet and part,
and I have two languages.
I forget which of them I dream in.”
(Mahmoud Darwish)
Therefore, if the impact of place is diluted by our modern lives, and the lack of immediacy to find food, and the ease to travel great distances, whatis the impact of the places we visit or inhabit? Are we still able to 'be' and 'substantially exists' in a place, even though it may be new, or briefly experienced? Are we able to gain and benefit from any connection to place in these modern, mobile days?
My view is yes, as long as we are able to fully live in the moment that we share with place. Therefore, we need temporarily put aside the day to day matters that overly absorb our lives and disconnect from the many thinsg distract us from enjoying place for what it is. We need to attempt to cast off the mundane, the human noise we carry with us, and just be fully in the moment if we are to truly experience the place we currently occupy.
We have to be able to ignore the pressures that inevitabley fill our lives, as these are distractions that pull us away from where we stand. We have to temporarily put aside how we are defined, be it by our jobs, our daily burdens, responsibilities and social norms as we need, for a moment, to allow the nature of place, and our connection to it to take over.
For this to happen we have to allow ourselves to be absorbed by place, where every sense detects and absorbs the surrounding noises and scents. We need to allow our affective domain to dominate and inform. Where our feelings detect the wind, the grass below our feet and we concentrate so we are only aware of our immediate selves and the place we stand.
In so doing we may begin to sense the universe and its design in the most mundane. Any place, any landscape or environment need not be an ill defined image we pass through. It can be a high definition experience full of contrast, bright and clear. By truly 'inhabiting' place the most subtle of things may shine out, how brief the moment. A place where thoughts stand stark and bold against the distant horizon of our day to day lives and a place where we find space for ourselves.
I've felt a shadow passing over me
It could stay for ever more
Like a wave I'm breaking far at sea
There's no one to hear the roar
The days are drifting into seasons
They're the hardest I have known
A million holes in the earth to fill
But no going home
There's no going home
Exile (Show of Hands).
Understanding 'Place'
“To know fully even one field or one land is a lifetime's experience. In the world of poetic experience it is depth that counts, not width. A gap in a hedge, a smooth rock surfacing a narrow lane, a view of a woody meadow, the stream at the junction of four small fields - these are as much as a man can fully experience.”
Patrick Kavanagh
Most of us have a particular place that we feel connected to. A place where we unconsciously know the layout and alignment of the land. An area that seems to call out in welcome. However, with the changes to lifestyle (driven by technology and social change) we can all too easily lose the intensity and strength of connections to place.
The Human Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan picks up on this theme by commenting that:
".. the grip of these places on us is light. Switching allegiance is common. Even our home does not command loyalty. The phenomenon I have just described is a familiar one and we know it to be a consequence of mobility, itself a consequence of economic well-being, backed by a speediness of transportation and communication that has cut down the historic onus of distance. Still, the lightness of our current attachment to place makes us wonder whether it is a serious loss, affecting our mental health and even our moral sense, which calls for strong commitment."
Yi-fu Tuan also argues that, despite the erosion of connection caused by modern life, we inevitably grow attached to our native place. This phenomena is keenly seen when we consider the exile. They feel disconnected from their new reality and always have an eye for home. They are defined even more strongly by place than most, but a place they now have no access too. Mahmoud Darwish captures this thought:
"I am from there. I am from here.
I am not there and I am not here.
I have two names, which meet and part,
and I have two languages.
I forget which of them I dream in.”
(Mahmoud Darwish)
Therefore, if the impact of place is diluted by our modern lives, and the lack of immediacy to find food, and the ease to travel great distances, whatis the impact of the places we visit or inhabit? Are we still able to 'be' and 'substantially exists' in a place, even though it may be new, or briefly experienced? Are we able to gain and benefit from any connection to place in these modern, mobile days?
My view is yes, as long as we are able to fully live in the moment that we share with place. Therefore, we need temporarily put aside the day to day matters that overly absorb our lives and disconnect from the many thinsg distract us from enjoying place for what it is. We need to attempt to cast off the mundane, the human noise we carry with us, and just be fully in the moment if we are to truly experience the place we currently occupy.
We have to be able to ignore the pressures that inevitabley fill our lives, as these are distractions that pull us away from where we stand. We have to temporarily put aside how we are defined, be it by our jobs, our daily burdens, responsibilities and social norms as we need, for a moment, to allow the nature of place, and our connection to it to take over.
For this to happen we have to allow ourselves to be absorbed by place, where every sense detects and absorbs the surrounding noises and scents. We need to allow our affective domain to dominate and inform. Where our feelings detect the wind, the grass below our feet and we concentrate so we are only aware of our immediate selves and the place we stand.
In so doing we may begin to sense the universe and its design in the most mundane. Any place, any landscape or environment need not be an ill defined image we pass through. It can be a high definition experience full of contrast, bright and clear. By truly 'inhabiting' place the most subtle of things may shine out, how brief the moment. A place where thoughts stand stark and bold against the distant horizon of our day to day lives and a place where we find space for ourselves.
I've felt a shadow passing over me
It could stay for ever more
Like a wave I'm breaking far at sea
There's no one to hear the roar
The days are drifting into seasons
They're the hardest I have known
A million holes in the earth to fill
But no going home
There's no going home
Exile (Show of Hands).