The Redwood Forest. Walk even 100 yards into it by yourself and you are surrounded by something ancient, powerful and strong. "The greatest of Earth's living forms, Tall conquerors that laugh at storms; Their challenge still unanswered rings, Through fifty centuries of kings" (Joseph B. Strauss)
The Pacific Ocean, pulling against the defiant cliffs or the Pacific Northwest. The rivers, now peaceful, now spiteful. The Great Lakes - "they go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted" (Stan Rogers)
The Earth itself is alive here, pushing up from the floor of Yosemite Valley, baring her soul before the ruthless Colorado River, snorting derision in the wind at Yellowstone.
Places that are holy by men's hand? Go to a Civil War battlefield. It's not the fact that men died there. It's that they believed so passionately on both sides that this is what America should be. That many people cannot believe something so strongly and not leave an impression. "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls" (Joshua Chamberlain)
The cathedrals of Europe were built over decades or even centuries, by toil and devotion. Here they were built mostly by modern techniques at very little effort by anyone. The Glory of God may be served, but it is not a testament to faith. For that, go seek the backcountry church in South Carolina, in Idaho, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Churches put up by farmers who took precious time from their crops to hew timbers, whitewash the clapboards. More remarkable still: unlike the great cathedrals where all too often God only creeps in after hours when the tourists are gone, He still waits in there, beneficent and loving.
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The Redwood Forest. Walk even 100 yards into it by yourself and you are surrounded by something ancient, powerful and strong. "The greatest of Earth's living forms, Tall conquerors that laugh at storms; Their challenge still unanswered rings, Through fifty centuries of kings" (Joseph B. Strauss)
The Pacific Ocean, pulling against the defiant cliffs or the Pacific Northwest. The rivers, now peaceful, now spiteful. The Great Lakes - "they go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted" (Stan Rogers)
The Earth itself is alive here, pushing up from the floor of Yosemite Valley, baring her soul before the ruthless Colorado River, snorting derision in the wind at Yellowstone.
Places that are holy by men's hand? Go to a Civil War battlefield. It's not the fact that men died there. It's that they believed so passionately on both sides that this is what America should be. That many people cannot believe something so strongly and not leave an impression. "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls" (Joshua Chamberlain)
The cathedrals of Europe were built over decades or even centuries, by toil and devotion. Here they were built mostly by modern techniques at very little effort by anyone. The Glory of God may be served, but it is not a testament to faith. For that, go seek the backcountry church in South Carolina, in Idaho, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Churches put up by farmers who took precious time from their crops to hew timbers, whitewash the clapboards. More remarkable still: unlike the great cathedrals where all too often God only creeps in after hours when the tourists are gone, He still waits in there, beneficent and loving.